On Wed, 26 May 1999, Colan Mitchell wrote:
> If this is a ? thats been dealt with before I joined the list my
> apologies.
> I repeatedly come across personal and confidential information on
> discarded computers. I sit and shake my head in shock. Lawyers seem to
> be the worst. I have considered contacting the original owners and
> educating them about practicing safe hex but, especially in the case of
> lawyers and women, don't want to have them freak out and think I'm being
> weird and calling the police. On the other hand I feel that I should do
> something. In the end I just format the drives and forget about it.
> Has anyone experienced contacting an original owner? What was the
> response. This is something that I've not read about in the media as Y2K
> and Hackers get all the press but I suspect this is a bigger potential
> problem.
The best thing to do is to instruct the potential donor to erase all
sensitive personal data from the computer before its given to you, or to
give you specific directions as to what should be deleted after its given
to you. If you get a computer from a second hand source (i.e. not the
original owner) the best thing to do is just to format the drive and leave
it at that. What you do with regards with your temptation to read the
material is entirely up to you.
See Uncle Roger's Classic Computer Collector's Code of Conduct for
suggestions:
http://sinasohn.com/clascomp/ccccc.htm
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Thu May 27 1999 - 03:10:22 BST