The Mail on Sunday has run an expose on secondhand computers tipping up in Ghana, in which the intrepid reporter obtained an NCR PC containing National Health Service patient data. Worse, much worse, is the picture the article paints of PCs being sent to the developing world for supposed recycling, as opposed to re-use. The Mail visits a "toxic pollution dump" in Ghana - and it is truly shocking. So what are UK end-use organisations and resellers to do? Use reputable brokers and charities for computer disposal, for starters. Make sure that PCs are destroyed in the UK - not sent abroad. And make sure that PCs for re-use are properly data-wiped. But we all know the drill. Is it really that difficult to turn theory into practice?

The dirty secret of your NHS