The Trump administration decided that terminated employees of USAID would have to dispose of their government-issued devices themselves, abandoning a previous plan for device collection. An email stated that devices would be wiped remotely and marked as disposed, leaving employees to manage the disposal, which raises significant security concerns, since sensitive information may still reside on the devices. This situation disproportionately affects employees stationed abroad who were told they would receive shipping labels for returns. E-waste disposal is a legally regulated matter due to environmental hazards, complicating the handling of these devices that may contain sensitive information.
The Trump administration will no longer collect government-issued devices from terminated USAID employees, leaving them responsible for disposal of sensitive equipment.
A former USAID employee reported that the return process for their laptop was chaotic, describing computers dumped into large garbage bins due to lack of clear guidelines.
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