June 2010 Newsbrief
|
 Back |
New legislation being proposed by State Senator Bob Smith and Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein would
require all records stored on a digital copying machine's hard drive be erased or irrecoverably modified when that device is
being resold, returned at the end of a lease, decommissioned or discarded,
reports Kevin McArdle
of New Jersey 101.5.
Digital copying machines made since 2002 store every document that passes through their system
in their hard drives. Because very few people know this, the machines are often resold, returned or discarded
with sensitive personal and business information contained and easily retrievable saved on their hard drives.
Careless protection of these documents can lead to fraud and identity theft as information such as
medical records, social security numbers, police records and tax records have been found on second-hand machines.
Violators of the legislation would be subject to penalties of up to $10,000 for the first offense and $20,000
for additional offenses, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.
Though the legislation would only be valid in New Jersey, a resolution is being introduced
to Congress engouraging a federal law requiring that all hard drives of copy machines in the United States be
wiped before they are resold or decommissioned.
Back to Top |
