Here today, gone tomorrow (with my data)?

Here today, gone tomorrow (with my data)?

11:48 AM, 10th November 2021, About 3 years ago 11

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It’s been a while since I gave anyone access to my computer, but the time has come when I need help with storage, speed and backups. Who do I trust to do this?

Firstly, is the person techy enough to know what they’re doing, and secondly, will they secretly install spyware or run off with my data?

I can’t seem to find any computer repair trade associations which could give me confidence that the person knows what they’re doing and is trustworthy. Many of the repair shops seem to only be around for a few years.

What do other people do?

JB


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Paul Shears

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23:13 PM, 13th November 2021, About 3 years ago

Yes, my employers spent huge sums of money (Ultimately recycled tax money) wiping formatted disks with a magnet and other means. The "service" was outsourced in the usual corporate manner, to a contractor.
I can assure you that virtually all of the information on these disks would be utterly worthless.
The old data can be overwritten when new data is loaded including a new operating system. But just how far do you want to take this activity?
When you work for a large corporation the finances for this sort of behaviour are endless, thanks to the tax payer. Of course you need managers to manage the managers ad infinitum.
I once suggested to a customer, a small, but international training company, that rather than go down this sort of route, why not just back up their data on CD.
So where to store the CD?
Well there was a bank just down the road which obviously has a safe.
So put the CD in a rented security box.
Then it struck me that even that was over the top.
So can you rent an envelope from a bank?
I rang the bank at the time to ask and discovered that you rent an envelope for £3.50 per year and a further £5 every time you access it.
So I suggested that they get the secretary to copy the data onto a CD every week, take the new CD to the bank every week and swop it over.
The old CD could be cut in half with a pair with scissors.
Factor in some encryption and you are in business.
The customer offered me a job.
If you take this to extreme, and I have seen exactly that happen for decades, you end up with a large army of people with not just no output, but an obstructive burden devoid of any capacity to display judgement.
You may care to reflect that the most important data that is produced is not even encrypted.

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