The grown-ups’ guide to posting photos online

It’s easy to dismiss the call to ‘stop and think’ before posting any photos online as advice that only applies to reckless teenagers who want to post photos they think make them look cool…but actually make them look stupid.  But the issue is more complex than that.

Many mature and sensible people who sincerely believe they are being careful simply don’t understand the risks they are taking when they post photos of themselves, friends or family online. The general assumption seems to be, “if this is an innocuous image and I’m only sharing it on a ‘private’ network, then there should be no problem”. Not necessarily.

Why and How to erase your hard drive, and protect your digital self?

You would not place your credit card or personal photos in a rubbish bin so why do the same with your hard disk?

In annual research conducted by Edith Cowan University, British Telecom, Glamorgan University (UK) and Longwood University(USA) we buy hard disks at random from auction houses and disposal companies. We forensically examine these hard drives for remnant data and consistently across all studies for the last 5 years over 66% of drives contain private and sensitive information as a result of people not disposing of these drives properly. We have found top secret government documents, medical records, financial details, legal documents, credit card numbers, insurance policies, personal photos, emails and most data types we produce as humans.