How to Securely Dispose of a Printer  Printer Out Of Order  The
other day a reader asked me something I couldn't immediately
answer. "I know that, when you toss a dead computer, you're
supposed to make the person information that resides on hard
drive inaccessible to the outside world," he said. "I was
wondering if this same issue arises when you toss a dead
printer?"  We've known for years that some expensive, high-end
printers and digital copiers may retain digital copies of
documents. One researchers warned that the same might happen
with personal printers, though he didn't identify specific
models. To get a handle on this question, I turned to M. David
Stone, PCMag's Lead Analyst for printers and scanners.  What
Kind of Data? "First, you need to make a distinction between
types of data," said Stone. "The important stuff for most people
would be what you print, fax, or copy. Call that real data. The
less important info would be stored email addresses and fax
numbers. Call that contact information."  "The o