Consumer Alert Time

The following video of a CBS News investigation piece is important. It shows me a number of problems that I will avoid by:


1. Not using public copiers (libraries, data centers, etc) for copying personal records.

2. Not allowing ANY business to copy anything with my personal data.

3. Not trusting that any of my data is secure in someone else's hands.



I was unaware they used permanent storage, like hard drives. I assumed they used RAM banks. These would not store any data permanently. Once power is removed, they would go blank. There's really no need to store massive amounts of data as part of the copying function. The multi-function types are probably where the dangers are since they act as hubs (as in "Biz-Hub") for all sorts of things. But these days, there is the capability of multiple gigabytes of RAM storage so why don't the copier companies use that? Cost, probably. But they could pass that cost on by explaining the security aspect.

With this knowledge, if I had a leased machine, I would be demanding the hard drive be left with my company or be shown that the drive was "scrubbed" before I returned it.

Here's the video link for YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC38D5am7go

Though it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the video, think about how many times some government agency copies your data... IRS, SS, DMV, whatever...