Old Data

On Mon, 30 Mar 1998, Seth J. Morabito wrote: A very important question for people involved in this hobby.... It kind of depends. I am a sys admin professionally right now, so I too have a religion based around the personal privacy of users. But as the guy responsible for what information people have access to, I am well aware of what's on any systems that are sold/given away. Certainly something important would have been backed up (Hubble stuff) but something sensitive would almost certainly been erased. My company images and stores medical records, about as sensitive as you can get. Short of the magnetic eraser, any drive that leaves my immediate line of sight gets wiped as clean as I can get it. Scientific/technical information that I come across I like to look at, and sometimes it inspires me to learn what the heck they're talking about. I'm not going to make copies and send it to the Chinese government or anything, so I don't see any harm done by it. Of course any personal mailboxes or notes get erased before my curiosity even knows they ever existed. Some people have looked at me like I was the most depraved criminal in the world when I mentioned reading about this or that electronic device or how interesting the schematic for a doo-dad was on an old system. It's a personal choice, and they are responsible for putting it in your hands anyway. Just have a little respect for personal privacy and use your own judgement. Aaron