Consumers Responsible For Protecting Personal Information
AURORA, Colo (CBS4) - Computer technology is constantly changing and if you like to keep up with the latest, you may be leaving a trail of personal information in your wake. As your old computer becomes someone else's new computer, you could be compromising your personal information.
Tony Publicover bought a used laptop at a pawn shop. When he fired it up he got a surprise.
"I found multiple people's information in this thing. I got tax returns… pay stubs," Publicover told CBS4.
That's exactly what Tony didn't want to happen.
"I was shocked and I was mad because they ensured me it was wiped," Publicover recalled.
He bought the computer at an EZ Pawn shop in Aurora.
"I asked two separate employees, 'Has this thing been wiped because my children are going to be on it and I don't need any pornography,'" he said.
Publicover said that the employees assured him it was completely cleaned off. But Tony ended up with full names, addresses, social security numbers, and personal financial information for three people.
"All it takes is one person to walk in, buy something like that, and there's a couple of people's lives destroyed," Publicover said.
EZ Pawn is owned by EZ Corp, Inc. based out of Austin, TX. A spokesperson for EZ Corp told CBS4 that the company tries to provide the best customer experience it can. Each store is provided with hard drive wiping software, however, the company does warn customers that they need to remove personal information before selling their hardware.
LINK: EZ Corp., Inc.
"We treat people's data more carefully than diamonds," said Mark Hope, with Action Computers.
Action Computers has been cleaning and reselling computers for 20 years. Hope said that as people upgrade their electronics, their personal information can become an afterthought.
"We have them coming in where it's raw and they've just left everything, or they think they've cleaned it to where my technicians could spend 10 minutes and easily bring all that data back," Hope told CBS4.
LINK: Action Computers
Simply erasing your files or reformatting the drive is not enough to protect your personal information.
"We do two methods and one of them is a very expensive $5,000 software suite that DOD governmental wipes seven passes and destroys the data by scrubbing it off the hard drive, or shredding the hard drives," Hope explained.
There is data erasing software available on the internet. These programs overwrite your information. Experts recommend looking for ones that make more than one pass and offer verification of data removal. Ultimately though to guarantee your personal information is not accessible, you need to physically destroy the hard drive, rendering the computer useless.
We tried to track down the people whose information was on Publicover's computer to let them know their information was compromised, but we were unable to locate them.
Libby Smith is a Special Projects Producer at CBS4. If you have a story you'd like to tell CBS4 about, call 303-863-TIPS (8477) or visit the News Tips section.