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When a consumer is finished using an electronic device (End-of- First-Use), they might recycle, resell, donate/give away, trade-in or throw it in the trash. There are security threats if a hostile party obtains the device and extracts data. Data wiping at End- of-First-Use is thus an important security behavior, one that has received scant analytical attention. To explore consumer behavior and reasoning behind data wiping practices, we undertake a survey of the U.S. population. One key result is that 31% of the population did not wipe data when dispositioning a device. When asked why not, 44% replied that they did not find data wiping important or that it did not occur to them. 33% replied the device was broken and data could not be wiped, 12% reported difficulty in wiping and 11% could not find a way to wipe. The 44% who thought data wiping was not important showed lower awareness of the security threat, 23% had heard that data can be recovered from discarded devices, versus 44% for the general population. The most prevalent device types for which data wiping was reported as unimportant are smart TVs, kitchen appliances, streaming, and gaming devices, suggesting that consumers may not be aware that private information is being stored on these devices. To inform future interventions that aim to raise awareness, we queried respondents where they obtained security knowledge. 47% replied that they learned about security threats from a single venue; social media was this single venue 43% of the time. This suggests that social media is a key channel for security education
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This content will become publicly available on April 20, 2026
Segmenting Consumer Knowledge and Attitudes: Behavioral Insights for End-of-First-Use Electronics
The goal of this study is to find patterns in how consumers disposition electronic devices at End-of-First-Use, i.e. store, recycle, resell, trade in, donate/give or and throw in the trash. K-means clustering was used on survey data from 3,747 U.S. respondents across 10 device categories to divide the population into three clusters of consumers based on stated attitudes and knowledge of data privacy, environmental benefits, convenience and other aspects of End-of-First-Use options. We then measure the reported intended disposition of devices for each cluster and compare with the general population. Cluster 1 has higher data security concerns when recycling, reselling or donating, and less knowledge and trust in End-of-First-Use options overall. The intended behavior of cluster 1 shows higher than average uncertainty in what to do at End-of-First-Use and more intent to store (lower values for other options - recycling, reselling and donating). Cluster 2 shows higher knowledge and trust in recycling, reselling, and donation, and slightly higher than average concern about data security of these options. The intended behavior of cluster 2 shows higher intent to resell, trade-in or donate, and lower levels of being uncertain of what to do and of storing. Cluster 3 expresses much less concern about data security, and lower utility of a stored device. Their intended behavior shows less storage and higher levels of other End-of- First-Use" options. While cluster analysis does not yield causal connections, the groups show consistent trends in stated knowledge and attitudes towards different End-of-First-Use options and corresponding planned behaviors. These results indicate there are subgroups of the general population with similar reported attitudes, knowledge and behaviors. The three subgroups do not have distinct demographic characteristics, i.e. knowledge and attitudes regarding disposition of electronics does not depend strongly on age, education level, income and similar factors. Understanding segmentation is useful to investigate more effective interventions to influence behavior for better sustainability outcomes.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2037535
- PAR ID:
- 10618742
- Publisher / Repository:
- 2025 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech)
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3315-0431-1
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 2
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- e-waste behavior reuse clustering End-of-First-Use electronics sustainability
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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