Upgrading your iPad? Your old one might just be an identity thief's treasure trove

If you are like me and my family, you have gone though a lot of electronics lately. We upgraded the blackberrys my wife and I had to iPhones. Then we both got new iPads. Add in our daughter's iPod Touch and her cell phone and that's a lot of upgraded devices. And that doesn't include the museum of laptops we have apparently started.

Why does this matter? Because all of those old devices have storage that contains information that an identity thief would love to get his hands on. And following the manufacturer's instructions on clearing the device's memory may not really delete everything that one might think. Or want deleted.

A lot of people sell old devices once they upgrade. But the safest thing to do is not sell the old devices. Anyone with much computer knowledge can access information that you thought was long gone. And this can definitely expose you to identity theft.

So don't trash those old devices or sell them. Keep them for your electronics museum and, by doing so, help keep your good name intact.