Recovered: Millions of Deleted Files from Secondhand Hard Drives

The study highlights the fact that most users don’t have thorough destruction or disposal plans for their hard drives when replacing them. Only a tiny fraction of users encrypt their host drive, while a worrying minority gets rid of hard drives laden with files. The findings suggest that eBay’s warnings to prospective sellers to make sure their laptops and storage devices have been wiped clean have fallen on deaf ears.