Evidence of erasure
for every device that leaves your hands.
When a laptop, desktop or server is retired, reused or sent for disposal, the personal data on its drives has to go, and you need to be able to show that it did. WipeCert erases the drive and issues a signed certificate for each device, which you, your auditor or your supervisory authority can check online.
Where erasure evidence fits in the GDPR
The regulation does not prescribe an erasure tool or a certificate format. It sets obligations, and a per-device erasure record is evidence you can use to meet them. Quotations are from Regulation (EU) 2016/679. The UK GDPR keeps these provisions under the same article numbers.
Article 5(1)(e)
Storage limitation
“kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed”
A laptop that has left service still holds the mailbox caches, downloads and local files of the person who used it. Once the device is retired, that data has usually outlived its purpose.
What the certificate gives you: The certificate ties the erasure to the asset in your inventory: device serial, drive serial, the method used and the time it completed.
Article 17
Right to erasure
“the controller shall have the obligation to erase personal data without undue delay where one of the following grounds applies”
Erasure duties cover personal data wherever you hold it, including copies on local drives. When a request or a retention rule means a device's data has to go, the drive is part of the job.
What the certificate gives you: Each certificate is a dated, signed record that a named drive was erased, which you can keep with your record of the request.
Article 32
Security of processing
“unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed”
Article 32(2), one of the risks to weigh when choosing measures
Article 32 asks for technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk. A drive that leaves your control with data on it is exactly the risk Article 32(2) describes.
What the certificate gives you: The certificate records the measure taken on each drive: the NIST SP 800-88 technique category (Clear or Purge) and how completion was confirmed. Across a fleet, those records give you data for the regular review of effectiveness that Article 32(1)(d) asks for.
Article 5(2)
Accountability
“The controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with, paragraph 1”
Being able to show what happened to the data on retired devices is part of demonstrating that you applied the principles in Article 5(1).
What the certificate gives you: Certificates sit in one dashboard, export together as a ZIP of signed PDFs, and can be checked online by anyone you give the certificate ID to.
Article 17(3) lists cases where the duty to erase does not apply. Deciding whether a given erasure is required, and whether it meets your obligations, stays with your organization and its advisers. This page explains what WipeCert records. It is not legal advice.
What a certificate shows an auditor
Every wipe that passes verification ends in a signed certificate. Drive checks the wipe did not record are left off the certificate, so a check that was not performed never reads as passed.
Device
Device name, manufacturer, model, serial number, device type and BIOS version.
Drive
Drive serial, model, capacity, type and interface, plus firmware, sector sizes, drive health and hidden-area (HPA/DCO) checks where the drive reports them. A machine with more than one drive lists each one.
Erasure
Tool and version, method, NIST SP 800-88 technique (Clear or Purge), passes and pattern, duration, and the completion time.
Verification method
How completion was confirmed, such as read-back sampling against the expected pattern, the drive's own completion status, or the Microsoft Intune completion report for an Intune remote wipe. The certificate names the basis it used and claims nothing beyond it.
Before and after fingerprints
Hashes taken before and after erasure, on the paths that read the drive.
Performed and validated by
The operator and organization that ran the wipe, and a second validator if your process uses one. If not, the certificate says it was a single-operator wipe.
Audit trail
Certificate ID, revision, issue time, the ID of the key that signed it, signing time, the verification link and a QR code.
How an auditor checks one
Verification does not depend on trusting the PDF you hand over. The auditor checks the certificate against the signed record on the public verification page.
Open the verification page- 1
Open wipecert.com/verify, enter the certificate ID, or scan the QR code on the PDF.
- 2
The page shows whether the digital signature on the record is valid, with the device, drive and erasure details from the signed record, so the auditor can compare them with the PDF.
- 3
A revoked certificate is shown as revoked, with the date and the reason given. A reissued one shows which revision is current.
- 4
Unless the certificate is revoked, the auditor can download the PDF from the same page. No WipeCert account is needed.
Data Processing Agreement
How we handle your data
Running the service means processing some of your account and device data. Our Data Processing Agreement sets out how. It is part of the Enterprise plan, and we sign one with other customers on request. Questions about where and how data is handled are answered there, or by our sales team.
Trust center
Security and privacy requests
How we protect the service and your certificates, how to request an export or deletion of your account data, and how to report a security issue.
Visit the trust centerSee a certificate from your own devices.
Start a free trial, or read how WipeCert works for teams in the EU and UK.