# Data erasers privacy ratings

Tools that securely delete files and wipe drives.

| Name | Grade | Jurisdiction | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Eraser](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/eraser/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Windows tool that removes sensitive data from a hard drive by overwriting it several times with selected patterns. |
| [nwipe](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/nwipe/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Command-line disk eraser for Linux written in C, with a text-based interface. It is a fork of the dwipe engine from DBAN and is used by ShredOS. |
| [Secure Remove](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/secure-remove/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Command-line tool that securely removes files, directories and whole disks by overwriting them, for Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows. It has not been updated for several years. |
| [shred](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/shred/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | A CLI utility that overwrites files and devices so their contents are difficult to recover. |
| [DBAN](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/dban/) | D (50/100) | Unknown | Darik's Boot and Nuke is a bootable disk image that wipes hard disk drives. It is owned by Blancco, has not been developed since its last release, and does not support SSDs. |
| [OW Shredder](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/ow-shredder/) | D (50/100) | Germany (Fourteen Eyes) | Portable Windows tool that securely erases files, folders and drives, with extra tools to analyse drives and remove leftover file system traces. |
| [SDelete](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/sdelete/) | F (35/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Microsoft Sysinternals command-line tool for Windows that securely deletes files and cleans free disk space by overwriting data. |
| [Dr.Fone](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/dr-fone/) | F (0/100) | Unknown | Wondershare Dr.Fone, a closed-source desktop toolkit for Android and iOS devices whose data eraser wipes a phone connected to a computer. |

## Criteria

- **Open source** (weight 3): Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
- **No trackers or telemetry** (weight 3): Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
- **No ads or data sales** (weight 2): Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
- **Independent audit** (weight 2): Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?

Source: https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/