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Digital copier hard drives tell secrets of past owners

CBS News has an interesting report this morning. It seems that most copiers made since 2002 have hard drives, and those hard drives store images of most of the documents run through the copier.

The privacy concerns are immense. CBS accompanied John Juntunen, owner of California-based Digital Copier Security, as he bought four used copiers for around $1,200.

Within 12 hours, Juntunen pulled thousands of documents off the copiers, which formerly belonged to the Buffalo, N.Y., Police Sex Crimes Division, the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit, a New York construction company and Affinity Health Plan.

The haul: detailed domestic violence complaint, a list of wanted sex offenders, a list of targets of a major drug raid, building designs, pay stubs, $40,000 in copied checks and 300 pages of personal medical records, including prescriptions, test results and diagnoses, CBS reports.