Data left over on a laptop

[SilentLeges]

The story so far.....


I bought a HP Pro Book 5210m (I think) off ebay for ~$300, got it today thought the guy would have sys prepped it before he sent it off, but no i booted it and it logged in. Ok then the resoultion is low and there is a few remaing things on the laptop such as office and an AV suite blah blah.

So instinctivly i went to IE to download Google Canary and Nightly (I switch between the two) but the curiosty got the better of me and checked the history on the laptop, and what did i find history entries from two weeks ago. ebay, olympics all of that.

So now i am sitting here thinking should i dig a bit deeper to see what was left behind? or is it crossing a line of ethics within IT? and just totally disregard it?

[Jim G]

Originally Posted by SilentLeges

The story so far.....


I bought a HP Pro Book 5210m (I think) off ebay for ~$300, got it today thought the guy would have sys prepped it before he sent it off, but no i booted it and it logged in. Ok then the resoultion is low and there is a few remaing things on the laptop such as office and an AV suite blah blah.

So instinctivly i went to IE to download Google Canary and Nightly (I switch between the two) but the curiosty got the better of me and checked the history on the laptop, and what did i find history entries from two weeks ago. ebay, olympics all of that.

So now i am sitting here thinking should i dig a bit deeper to see what was left behind? or is it crossing a line of ethics within IT? and just totally disregard it?

I'd bail and format the whole thing at this point in time... who knows what you'll find and you can't un-see things once you've seen them

[SilentLeges]

So i have decided to give in, and i am currently running a "Sustained Damage Recovery Program" Will keep this thread updated

Eta for finishing time 3:16:14

[hutsy]

As far as ethics in IT go the way I see it is that if someone gives me their laptop to fix, or when I'm working on network shares, etc.. I am fully ethical and have never snooped further than I absolutely had to go within the parameters of the job.

As for data on second hand HDDs/laptops/etc that I have purchased I don't think those rules apply (well to an extent), I would happily look through images/etc that people have left on these type of machines. It's like buying a locked cabinet at auction, once you buy it the contents are yours. If you don't want your data accessed then make sure you securely wipe the storage before selling the item (or don't sell it with the storage devices at all).

If however I found something of a secure nature (like someone had left their credit card details in a text file or something) I would inform the user (if they were easily contactable), or delete the information.

[Renza]

firstly, why would anyone bother sysprepping a laptop when selling it? Just format it using the factory restore disks and be done with it.

secondly, what do you expect to find on the laptop? IMO just format it... hopefully you're not trying to be malicious and trying to recover passwords or personal details for your own personal gain...

[SilentLeges]

Originally Posted by Renza

firstly, why would anyone bother sysprepping a laptop when selling it? Just format it using the factory restore disks and be done with it.

secondly, what do you expect to find on the laptop? IMO just format it... hopefully you're not trying to be malicious and trying to recover passwords or personal details for your own personal gain...

I would never, ever in a Indefinte period of time use my skills as an IT tech to gain information that i could use against a person.

Tbh im just curious that is all. I find data I will have a quick look and then delete it. that is if i find anything.

[Creekin]

itsatrap.jpg

dont go doing any netbanking on it till u format
if seller isnt smart enough to format it before he sold it
there wont be much on it imxp
and or its stolen

[Davo1111]

have a look why not. some time to kill anyway

IANAL

[The Watcher]

I agree with "itsatrap.jpg" don't do anything on this thing. don't logon to netbanking, email, facebook, twitter, work, OR OCAU!!!!

have play and see whats there, but don't put your trust in a random... you know the old saying, nuke it from orbit... its the only way to be sure.

[glenpinn]

if you paid for that laptop, then it, along with the contents held on it, are yours, as long as the contents are not copyrighted content, password protected, or encrypted, and its the sellers problem if they left stuff on their machine for others to see.

there are laws in place that determines who can keep what when it comes to computers, and what is stored on them, so you just need to be aware of those laws before you do too much as far as keeping the contents.

i used to do hdd data recovery for clients who presented me with their hard drives that were reformatted either by the pc owner, or by useless techs who didnt backup data before doing a fresh install (not that they are obliged to) and i always got them to sign off their permission for me to access their files once recovered, and sort them out before re-enstating them back onto their hdd, and the same applied to clients who i was doing a simple re-installation for, i just did it to cover my back, and to let them know i will have access to everything on that machine.

a sad story i can tell you is of a laptop i bought a few years ago from a guy who was selling up property belonging to a deceased estate.

the laptop was riddled with the previous owners personal files and photos, so the guy who sold it to me asked if i could copy over anything i thought was important to a usb stick he gave me, which i did.

as part of this procedure (i instinctively do this as part of this procedure) i went to folder options in control panel, and clicked on the option to "unhide hidden files and folders" and after looking thru all the usual places for hidden stuff, i ended up locating some word docs inside a hidden folder, and after i copied all files and photos i found over to the pen stick, i presented them to the seller, and he went thru all the files i found, and sadly, the 3 files i found in a hidden folder turned out to be previously unseen drafts of suicide notes written by the actual owner of the laptop, which as you can imagine, this totally changed the way they had to deal with this guys estate, and the laptop owners death was not treated as suspicious at that time.

it might sound aweful, but in a way i wish i never went to "unhide folders" but the other part of my head says im glad i did, and so too did the family of the laptop owner, because it solved so many mysterious things for them.

if you are a tech and you have to backup clients data prior to doing anything on their machine, just make sure you explain to them that you can, and will have access to their files (whatever they might be) and get their permission first (signed off like i do) before doing anything.

this way you cover your back, even tho the law, is mostly on your side anyway.