Pc repairs personal data

[tali1]

If you send your PC/laptop for repair - can the technicians gain access to your browsing history (those err sites - ahem :) ) , emails, banking and all sorts of personal info?
Or will a password log in be sufficient ?

[VHG]

What is a password log?

There is no password that will protect all the files on your hard disk. And if you want them to fix it they need to access the disk.

So basically, yes they will be able to access all the data on the hard disk, whatever it is.

Best thing to do is download a free product called ccleaner and run it.

http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

Select all the options on ccleaner (for all the browsers you run) and it will delete all your temporary files, history, and lots more besides.

Make sure you keep details of all your userids and password you use to log on to web sites as ccleaner will delete them.

Also make sure you remove ALL the personal files off your PC as some of the repair people are not that good at saving your personal files.

Buy an external harddrive if you have not already got one, and COPY (or better still MOVE) all your personal files to that.

[pdq1]

They could use this but why would they want to?

http://www.oxid.it/cain.html

[VHG]

>>>What is a password log?

So I misread "password log in" as "password log".

Even if you have a password login they will still be able to access your disk.

A hard disk can be removed from a computer, put in a "caddy", and plugged into another computer and you can bypass the log-in and access all the files.

I have done this loads of times when trying to fix others people's computers and I have been able to see all the files on their disk.

p.s. I believe places like PC World have to scan the hard disk for "dodgy" files before working on it, that is how Gary Glitter was caught.

[tali1]

yes thanks - i meant password log in
Just wondering with large computer support organisations such as PC world, how does Data Protection Act work given they are in effect accessing personal data? -or is that simply the inevitable and unavoidable nature of their work?

[Old_Geezer]

Well, Mr. Glitter, there are applications that will clear this sort of information, and others that do a decent job over overwriting the freed up space with data. If it is that important to you. But if you take a PC to a shop for repair and the techies have time on their hands, then them nosing around your adult interest collection is a risk you take. Always useful to learn a bit in order to make your own repairs to things.