confidential info on old harddrives.

On Mon, 31 May 1999, Chuck McManis wrote: Hmmmm... with fond respect accorded to My Learned Colleague... this tautology seems a bit specious. So I would rather propose the following scenaria: You find a "perfect-10" Magnesium GridCase at a local thriftshop for $5.. you talk them down to $3 and it's yours. Upon firing it up, you find: A) the entire 'black book' of a notorious drug lord... databases, names, addresses, spreadsheets, etc. Among the names are various prominent politicians, celebrities, and others. It is clear they have been.... misbehaving. B) The complete record of a well known high-profile psychiatrist, including some very 'private' info on, again, various Famous Folk. A few of these Folk are in "positions of trust", and the info would tend to utterly disqualify them from those positions. C) The business and research records of a successful competitor of yours... all of the data required to smash them like a slimy bug and take over sole dominance in your market. Ball's in your court. All you *really* wanted was the computer... Cheers John. PS: A minor variation of "B" actually happened to me. As soon as I realized what was on the machine, I phoned the Dr. involved, offering the machine back to him. The situation was resolved when I assured him that I would wipe the HD, which I did while we were on the phone. [It was a Kaypro 10... user area '0' had been DEL'd, but areas 1-16 had been forgotten about]