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I've been thinking about donating some old smart home devices, like a couple of Google Home Minis and an old smart plug, and its raised some engaging ethical questions for me. On one hand, it feels wasteful to just throw them away when they could be useful to someone else, especially a less tech-savvy person or a charity.
Though, the big concern is security and privacy. Factory resetting them should remove my data and unlink them from my accounts,but there's always a nagging worry that some residual information might remain,or that the new user might not understand the security implications of linking the devices to their own accounts. Imagine donating a smart camera – the potential for misuse or unintentional privacy breaches is definitely there.
This makes me wonder what the best, moast ethical approach is. Is it better to risk contributing to e-waste, or to take what precautions I can and trust the recipient to be responsible? Has anyone else struggled with this, and what solutions did you come up with? I'm leaning towards donating but I'm curious about best practices for wiping data and educating the recipient on security risks.