Digital Photocopiers Loaded With Secrets

[BERIGAN]

Your Office Copy Machine Might Digitally Store Thousands of Documents That Get Passed on at Resale

By Armen Keteyian

(CBS) At a warehouse in New Jersey, 6,000 used copy machines sit ready to be sold. CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports almost every one of them holds a secret.

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive - like the one on your personal computer - storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it's turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

More

[GA Russell]

I wonder if the Chinese will buying up the copiers now!

[BERIGAN]

I wonder if the Chinese will buying up the copiers now!

[A Lark Ascending]

Not sure what the Chinese will make of all those bottoms from the office party.

[ejp626]

That's pretty interesting. I actually thought this would happen, though I assumed in places like the former Soviet Union or China, once the storage space was no longer a barrier. And so it has. No idea that this happens as a matter of course for many US-based copiers. Why would this be the standard setting?

Actually reading through the comments on Berigan's link leaves me quite confused. It suggests that many copiers only put the documents in temp storage, but some do put this into long-term storage.

Edited April 22, 2010 by ejp626