# Data protection and personal information



## JSER (Jun 19, 2012)

Now this is an interesting thing.

I have been into IT since CP/M, I used to teach IT and ran an IT charity so I know a litle about computers, and I have raised a few points with LCE and other companies regarding the data protection regulations and pre owned equipment.

Case in hand

Mr S goes to a camera shop and part exchanges his camera/vid camera for a new model
Shop sells his camera used to mr X
Mr X finds photographs of Mr S family, children, house, address etc on card using any available recovery software

What is the law, technically the retaile outlet have broken the Data Protection act, and yes I have spoken to the 

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane 
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Think when you part exchange,


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## KmH (Jun 19, 2012)

The whole world wonders -  Why did Mr. S leave the memory card in the camera?


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## table1349 (Jun 19, 2012)

They have violated the same laws that would be in place if Mr. S left a roll of film in an SLR or Movie Camera.  Mr. S should be charged with Aggravated Stupidity Hold For State Warrant for giving that "data" away.


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## nmoody (Jun 19, 2012)

When Mr S sold the SD card, they also sold all the content of the card. Thats my take on it.

Its similar to throwing stuff away.


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## KmH (Jun 19, 2012)

No doubt, Mr. S failed to do his due diligence prior to handing over the camera to be replaced :thumbdown:, as did the camera shop on accepting the camera from Mr.S. :thumbdown: 

Sounds like Mr. X essentially got a free memory card. :thumbup:


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## Josh66 (Jun 19, 2012)

KmH said:


> No doubt, Mr. S failed to do his due diligence prior to handing over the camera to be replaced :thumbdown:, as did the camera shop on accepting the camera from Mr.S. :thumbdown:
> 
> Sounds like Mr. X essentially got a free memory card. :thumbup:




That actually made me laugh.  The thumbs up/down were the finishing touch.



If the shop wanted to cover their ass and do everything 100% legal, they should have wiped the card once they discovered it.  They would have to overwrite the entire card multiple times, and in some cases that might not even be enough.  Their best bet would be to just destroy it, if they really want to cover their ass.

I have read of the same thing happening with computers.  Company X wants new computers, so they sell their old stuff and buy new stuff.  The place they sell the old stuff to says they wipe the drives and remove all private data, but really they just like saying that - they don't actually do anything to the drive...  They sell the HDD to someone else, and - WHOA! - There's a ton of confidential (and in one case I read about, Classified) information in here!

No, that is not typical, and yes - "Company X" is ran by fools.


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## Garbz (Jun 20, 2012)

To what level would you wipe the card? This is a problem that has plagued people all over the world. A format only removes the file allocation table and it would be trivial to recover what was previously on the card. 

The same applies to second hand harddisks. A portion of them measured in 10s of percent are sold with previous customer data still on them. An even larger percent of second hand drives are sold with data recoverable from them.


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## bratkinson (Jun 20, 2012)

Wiping stuff off computer hard drives is a problem long addressed in the PC world. While one may think that simply deleting files in Windows is sufficient, absolutely everything can be recovered with not-too-elaborate software. Even a simple 'format' command will leave readable data on a hard drive. The best solution to prevent data recovery is to run a program that writes all 1s and then goes back and writes all 0s on the entire hard drive. Alternatively, remove the hard drive and mash it good with a sledgehammer. As an alternative to the sledgehammer, a bulk demagnetizer will scramble things too. But only do it when the hard drive is 3 feet or more away from the rest of the computer. 

The same is true on your camera memory cards. Although a format will wipe off most of the image data, only a low-level format will completely wipe it off. Better still, keep the memory cards safe. And if your new camera doesn't use that style memory card, lock 'em up, give them to your kids to use, or smash them with a hammer.


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## 480sparky (Jun 20, 2012)

There are no erasers in the digital word.


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## KenC (Jun 20, 2012)

bratkinson said:


> Alternatively, remove the hard drive and mash it good with a sledgehammer.



I have a small sledge dedicated to destroying hard drives from our old computers.  Well, actually it does do some other things as well, but even if it didn't I would keep it around just for this.


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## IByte (Jun 20, 2012)

As a person that does computer forensics, even a completely formatted drive still holds secrets.  As mentioned above only a 3 pound sledge hammer and/or drill can destroy information.


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## 480sparky (Jun 20, 2012)

IByte said:


> As a person that does computer forensics, even a completely formatted drive still holds secrets.  As mentioned above only a 3 pound sledge hammer and/or drill can destroy information.



Not true.

Saving your images on ONE drive alone will GUARANTEE the drive will self-destruct.


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## IByte (Jun 20, 2012)

480sparky said:
			
		

> Not true.
> 
> Saving your images on ONE drive alone will GUARANTEE the drive will self-destruct.



Information overload  sequence count down lol.


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## 2WheelPhoto (Jun 20, 2012)

this thread made me LoL


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## Buckster (Jun 20, 2012)

So, for consumer grade recovery software available at this time to get the images off a wiped hard drive, what would you folks actually familiar with them and with recovery recommend?  I have a portable hard drive my daughter took with her to Italy, filled with photos, then moved those photos to her desktop machine when she returned, and returned the "empty" portable drive to me.  At some point, her desktop drive failed, and she replaced it, so it's gone.  I'm thinking after reading this thread that her Italy photos might still be recoverable on the portable drive, if I use the right software to find and restore them.


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## 480sparky (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> So, for consumer grade recovery software available at this time to get the images off a wiped hard drive, what would you folks actually familiar with them and with recovery recommend?  I have a portable hard drive my daughter took with her to Italy, filled with photos, then moved those photos to her desktop machine when she returned, and returned the "empty" portable drive to me.  At some point, her desktop drive failed, and she replaced it, so it's gone.  I'm thinking after reading this thread that her Italy photos might still be recoverable on the portable drive, if I use the right software to find and restore them.



I would try the free stuff first.  I use MjM for my first go-round.  Since it's a hard drive, with lots of gigs, it may take a while to root it all out.

You may not find ALL the photos, but if a given image hasn't been overwritten, then about any recovery software should work... it's just a matter of letting it do it's thing while you go out and shoot.


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## ClickAddict (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> So, for consumer grade recovery software available at this time to get the images off a wiped hard drive, what would you folks actually familiar with them and with recovery recommend? I have a portable hard drive my daughter took with her to Italy, filled with photos, then moved those photos to her desktop machine when she returned, and returned the "empty" portable drive to me. At some point, her desktop drive failed, and she replaced it, so it's gone. I'm thinking after reading this thread that her Italy photos might still be recoverable on the portable drive, if I use the right software to find and restore them.



The key point is wether the drive was used since her trip.  If it hasn't, then you have a really good chance to recover most of the files (if not all).  If it was used a lot and filled up a few times since, then don't expect to get them back.


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## ClickAddict (Jun 20, 2012)

Oh and I work in IT at the hospital and whenever a PC (or any device with a drive) is decomissioned, the drive is removed and a hole drilled through it.  They don't even bother to check if there may or may not have had confidential info on it.  Standard policy.


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## table1349 (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> So, for consumer grade recovery software available at this time to get the images off a wiped hard drive, what would you folks actually familiar with them and with recovery recommend?  I have a portable hard drive my daughter took with her to Italy, filled with photos, then moved those photos to her desktop machine when she returned, and returned the "empty" portable drive to me.  At some point, her desktop drive failed, and she replaced it, so it's gone.  I'm thinking after reading this thread that her Italy photos might still be recoverable on the portable drive, if I use the right software to find and restore them.



Best Free Secure Erase Utility

Good disk management coupled with good wipe procedures will take care of the issues.  

This works great however not for newbies.  About DBAN | Darik's Boot And Nuke

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-secure-erase-utility.htm


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## Buckster (Jun 20, 2012)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Buckster said:
> 
> 
> > So, for consumer grade recovery software available at this time to get the images off a wiped hard drive, what would you folks actually familiar with them and with recovery recommend?  I have a portable hard drive my daughter took with her to Italy, filled with photos, then moved those photos to her desktop machine when she returned, and returned the "empty" portable drive to me.  At some point, her desktop drive failed, and she replaced it, so it's gone.  I'm thinking after reading this thread that her Italy photos might still be recoverable on the portable drive, if I use the right softwDidare to find and restore them.
> ...


Did you even read my post?  I want to recover photos, not wipe a hard drive so securely that I have no chance at all of recovering the photos.  Are you quite sure these are the best software for the job I want to do?


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## table1349 (Jun 20, 2012)

Consumer grade recovery freeware:  Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download


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## Buckster (Jun 20, 2012)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Consumer grade recovery freeware:  Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download


Thanks!  What is it you would or could say about this software that makes it superior to the others in it's class in your opinion?


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## LizardKing (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> gryphonslair99 said:
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> > Consumer grade recovery freeware:  Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download
> ...


All these tools are pretty simple/basic actually... As someone said, start with the free ones and if there's something you're unable to recover, then try some of the paid ones. I recently tried one called GetDataBack and worked great


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## table1349 (Jun 20, 2012)

It is non intrusive, so if it does not work it will not change or alter the drive.  It has an easy inner face for in experienced users. Plus it is free.


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## Buckster (Jun 20, 2012)

LizardKing said:


> Buckster said:
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The wording of your post here indicates that some of the paid ones will do a better job of digging out stuff that the free ones won't.  If that's the case, I'd prefer to just start with the better programs.  I'm not afraid to spend money to get better products and tools to work with, within reason, which is why I said "consumer grade" - I just need to know what those tools are.


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## Buckster (Jun 20, 2012)

gryphonslair99 said:


> It is non intrusive, so if it does not work it will not change or alter the drive.  It has an easy inner face for in experienced users. Plus it is free.


I take it this is the one you've used with success?  More than once?


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## table1349 (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> gryphonslair99 said:
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> > It is non intrusive, so if it does not work it will not change or alter the drive.  It has an easy inner face for in experienced users. Plus it is free.
> ...



I don't use it, but have recommended it to several friends and they have had good success.  I have other options and you really don't want to know what those options cost.  For the price you would pay you could probably send your daughter back to Italy so she could retake the photos.


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## Buckster (Jun 20, 2012)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Buckster said:
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LOL!  Fair enough!


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## cgipson1 (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> gryphonslair99 said:
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Buckster...

I usually use the File Recovery Tool Active@ File Recovery is a file recovery software for Windows that this outfit NTFS Data Recovery Software. BootDisk, Freeware NTFS DOS and more... makes! Works very well. I have worked in IT since the early 80's... and initially used the DOS version of this tool for data recovery. The windows version is much easier to use. As long as the drive will spin up, and the head isn't damaged.. this will pull data off. This has several levels of recovery.. from really basic stuff, to bit and sector search and recovery. I have had very good luck with it. Basically if you have not written to the drive you have, the files are still there. They are just marked as gone in the fat table... so should be totally recoverable.


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## table1349 (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> gryphonslair99 said:
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Also check out ccleaner while you are there.  Good tool everyone ought to have.


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## LizardKing (Jun 20, 2012)

Buckster said:


> LizardKing said:
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Well, I'm no expert in these kind of programs, but I think free products will get your files back 99% of the times if nothing special (as in really bad) happened to your drive or you didn't overwrite the old data with new one. That's why I suggested to try the free ones first. But it's obvious this is a great tool to have at hand just in case something happens, so it makes sense to get one of the best paid options and just forget about it. Unfortunately, I don't know enough as to recommend any.


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## cgipson1 (Jun 20, 2012)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Buckster said:
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I agree... CCleaner is good tool! Just be careful what you remove with it... lol!


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## Josh66 (Jun 20, 2012)

cgipson1 said:


> gryphonslair99 said:
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BleachBit is better, IMO.  Seems to find more stuff.


http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/
Runs on Windows & Linux.


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## IByte (Jun 20, 2012)

You and your crackhead penguin binary lol.


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