The Chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, has now responded (PDF) to say that his agency is taking the matter quite seriously. Markey wanted to know what the agency was doing and planned to do about the problem. "I am concerned that these hard drives represent a treasure trove for thieves, leaving unwitting consumers vulnerable to identity theft as their Social Security numbers, birth certificates, medical records, bank records, and other personal information are exposed to individuals who could easily extract the data from the digital copiers' hard drive and use it for criminal purposes," he wrote. In the wake of that news story, Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) shot off a letter (PDF) to the FTC. It also scored Social Security numbers, medical documents, and "$40,000 in copied checks." By examining the hard drives of several used copiers, CBS found "a list of targets in a major drug raid" from the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit. Most digital copiers produced in the last five years archive copied documents on internal hard drives, and those hard drives are easy enough to obtain once the copiers are resold or their lease expires. It exists there along with medical forms, financial documents, and that list of gang members your police department was just about to arrest.ĬBS News did a story last month on secrets kept by digital copiers. The Federal Trade Commission wants to make sure the public knows an important truth: if you photocopy your butt on a modern copier, it's probably still there, safe on the copier's hard drive.
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