An investigation into the disposal of computer equipment has uncovered psychological reports on school-children, confidential company data and even details of an illicit affair on hard drives that should have been wiped clean. Universities, schools and global businesses are routinely breaking the Data Protection Act by disposing of computers without removing personal data, researchers found. The Computer Forensics team at the University of Glamorgan examined over 100 hard drives at the behest of investigative journalist, Peter Warren. Some of the drives were bought from eBay, others from computer fairs and traders. Only two contained no recoverable data at all, and one of those was brand new…
