Comments on: Personal Data Sold on eBay for $64 Dollars http://cybernetnews.com/personal-data-sold-on-ebay-for-64-dollars/ Technology News Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:03:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ashleyhttp://cybernetnews.com/personal-data-sold-on-ebay-for-64-dollars/#comment-142773 Ashley Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:51:21 +0000 http://cybernetnews.com/?p=15089#comment-142773 <div class="commentquote"><a href="#comment-142705" rel="nofollow">moopenguin32 wrote:</a><blockquote>It seems that since the PC was sold for only $64 and the eBay listing did not mention people’s personal information for sale, I would say this is an honest mistake. I work for the State of North Carolina and when we retire old equipment, we run kill disk on it to completely wipe the hard drive. However, it makes me wonder how many PCs this does not happen to.</blockquote></div> From the sounds of it, it was a former employee who took the computer and sold it. I don't know if it was an honest mistake, or a situation where they took something they weren't supposed to, which is why they are now a "former" employee. moopenguin32 wrote:
It seems that since the PC was sold for only $64 and the eBay listing did not mention people’s personal information for sale, I would say this is an honest mistake. I work for the State of North Carolina and when we retire old equipment, we run kill disk on it to completely wipe the hard drive. However, it makes me wonder how many PCs this does not happen to.

From the sounds of it, it was a former employee who took the computer and sold it. I don’t know if it was an honest mistake, or a situation where they took something they weren’t supposed to, which is why they are now a “former” employee.

]]> By: moopenguin32http://cybernetnews.com/personal-data-sold-on-ebay-for-64-dollars/#comment-142753 moopenguin32 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:39:53 +0000 http://cybernetnews.com/?p=15089#comment-142753 <div class="commentquote"><a href="#comment-142717" rel="nofollow">redfish wrote:</a><blockquote>Before getting rid of computers or HDs, I use one of the wiping tools on UBCD. There are presets that supposedly meet DoD and other government specifications, or you can come up with your own settings. It’s not a fast process by any means — you’ll want to have a good 6-8 hours depending on the drive size and method of wiping.<a href="http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/</a></blockquote></div> I will have to check this out if I ever decide to sell a hard drive. Thanks! redfish wrote:
Before getting rid of computers or HDs, I use one of the wiping tools on UBCD. There are presets that supposedly meet DoD and other government specifications, or you can come up with your own settings. It’s not a fast process by any means — you’ll want to have a good 6-8 hours depending on the drive size and method of wiping.

[ultimatebootcd.com]

I will have to check this out if I ever decide to sell a hard drive. Thanks!

]]> By: Googlerhttp://cybernetnews.com/personal-data-sold-on-ebay-for-64-dollars/#comment-142719 Googler Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:11:54 +0000 http://cybernetnews.com/?p=15089#comment-142719 Fine with me as long as they give me a piece of that pie. Fine with me as long as they give me a piece of that pie.

]]> By: redfishhttp://cybernetnews.com/personal-data-sold-on-ebay-for-64-dollars/#comment-142717 redfish Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:58:03 +0000 http://cybernetnews.com/?p=15089#comment-142717 Before getting rid of computers or HDs, I use one of the wiping tools on UBCD. There are presets that supposedly meet DoD and other government specifications, or you can come up with your own settings. It's not a fast process by any means -- you'll want to have a good 6-8 hours depending on the drive size and method of wiping.http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ Before getting rid of computers or HDs, I use one of the wiping tools on UBCD. There are presets that supposedly meet DoD and other government specifications, or you can come up with your own settings. It’s not a fast process by any means — you’ll want to have a good 6-8 hours depending on the drive size and method of wiping.

[ultimatebootcd.com]

]]> By: moopenguin32http://cybernetnews.com/personal-data-sold-on-ebay-for-64-dollars/#comment-142705 moopenguin32 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:28:13 +0000 http://cybernetnews.com/?p=15089#comment-142705 It seems that since the PC was sold for only $64 and the eBay listing did not mention people's personal information for sale, I would say this is an honest mistake. I work for the State of North Carolina and when we retire old equipment, we run kill disk on it to completely wipe the hard drive. However, it makes me wonder how many PCs this does not happen to. It seems that since the PC was sold for only $64 and the eBay listing did not mention people’s personal information for sale, I would say this is an honest mistake. I work for the State of North Carolina and when we retire old equipment, we run kill disk on it to completely wipe the hard drive. However, it makes me wonder how many PCs this does not happen to.

]]> By: Richardhttp://cybernetnews.com/personal-data-sold-on-ebay-for-64-dollars/#comment-142700 Richard Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:26:06 +0000 http://cybernetnews.com/?p=15089#comment-142700 Last year I bought an 80GB HD from very well known computer company where I live, I think it was about £5 / $10. I took it home being told it had been reformatted and I would need to install an OS on it. That was no problem for me, I switched the pc on forgetting to put the Ubuntu disk in the CD-ROM drive and to my surprise it booted up to Windows ME. So I when looking around the OS thinking it was very odd. Loaded "My Documents" and there was 100's of documents ranging from word documents containing her old bank details and her new card/bank details sent to her by her bank,(only few months old) it seems she had just change banks & cards few months before sending this HD to them. Other files were home photos/videos, Excel files showing her expenditure and income for the last 5 years. The horrors continued I connected it to the internet to see if the network card worked still and I loaded up Outlook and it started downloading new e-mails some of the e-mails it downloaded where only few hours old sent to her that day. With few e-mails telling the previous owner there new contact details (address, e-mail, telephone) and to get in contact with them, after that I reformatted the HD and put XP on it Last year I bought an 80GB HD from very well known computer company where I live, I think it was about £5 / $10. I took it home being told it had been reformatted and I would need to install an OS on it. That was no problem for me, I switched the pc on forgetting to put the Ubuntu disk in the CD-ROM drive and to my surprise it booted up to Windows ME. So I when looking around the OS thinking it was very odd. Loaded “My Documents” and there was 100′s of documents ranging from word documents containing her old bank details and her new card/bank details sent to her by her bank,(only few months old) it seems she had just change banks & cards few months before sending this HD to them. Other files were home photos/videos, Excel files showing her expenditure and income for the last 5 years. The horrors continued I connected it to the internet to see if the network card worked still and I loaded up Outlook and it started downloading new e-mails some of the e-mails it downloaded where only few hours old sent to her that day. With few e-mails telling the previous owner there new contact details (address, e-mail, telephone) and to get in contact with them, after that I reformatted the HD and put XP on it

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