Friday, March 1, 2002

Special Report: Secrets of Your Hard Drive

Jake Wilson
"It was fun just going and looking over all the items."

It was a bargain hunter’s dream. An auction of computer and office equipment from a failed dot com in Framingham. Jake Wilson had his sights on a laptop.

Jake Wilson
"I was able to find one that I wanted, I put in a bid and ended up winning."

For $440 Wilson walked away with a slightly used Think Pad. He soon realized the laptop had more than an operating system on its hard drive. It had almost all the former company’s business files, including stock options and employees social security numbers.

Jake Wilson
"I was shocked."

Had this gotten into the wrong hands, these employees could very easily have found they're identities stolen.

Brenda Sharton, Goodwin Procter, LLP
"What people need to know is delete doesn't mean delete… Certainly you wouldn’t give away your file cabinets if the files were still in them."

Hundreds of dot coms in Massachusetts went out of business over the past two years and there could be thousands of computers out there with private information on them. Many computer and business experts say it's impossible to estimate how widespread this problem is.

Brenda Sharton
"They were set-up in haste and they were disbanded in haste. A lot of times by younger individuals who weren’t as sophisticated in intellectual property issues."

It’s not just a problem for dot com businesses. One used computer bought in San Francisco turned out to have thousands of patients medical records which were traced back to a supermarket pharmacy in Tempe, Arizona.

Brenda Sharton
"Some of the information can be highly sensitive."

Sensitive information can also turn up in thrift stores or used computer stores. At the Computer Loft in Cambridge, machines are routinely traded in with all types of information on them.

Craig Marin, Computer Loft
"We see bank records, we see tax returns… Also, log ins to secure websites can be left on… and that’s an easy way for people to get your information and use your credit card to purchase things they’re not supposed to."

Before you get rid of that old computer, experts say you should re-initialize the hard drive. This will completely writes over all the information on your computer. Which is what Jake Wilson did with his used laptop. If you don’t want to take any chances, another way to delete your information is to remove the hard drive completely and physically destroy it.

Craig Marin
"Prepare yourself. Don’t give others your information that can be used against you."

If you think a company has leaked your personal information through a computer hard drive and you want to find out more about your rights, click on the links below.

For more information: