26 May
1999
26 May
'99
8:10 p.m.
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(a)siconic.com
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