PC World sells "new" hard drive with personal data on

Zardon · Jul 1, 2004, 02:32 PM

A WESTERN DIGITAL hard drive sold as new in a major PC World outlet in London on Monday contained a couple's personal data including spreadsheets, VAT information and other sensitive information.

We bought the Western Digital 20GB Caviar drive along with a CD drive from the Tottenham Court Road branch of PC World because we were building a new PC.

But after the operating system software failed to install correctly, we examined the hard drive and found that it contained a number of Word documents and Excel wordsheets belonging to an individual and his partner, based in West London.

The package was sold intact with a black and white security label saying "do not open before purchase", and was for sale with other new drives in the superstore.

A representative for PC World said she was puzzled at how the incident could have occurred.

She thought there were a couple of possibilities. Those were - that the drive was received in that condition from the manufacturer, or that the disk was returned by a customer as new and unused.

She said that if the disk had been returned as defective it would have been returned to the warehouse. The Dixons Group has a returns policy where defective products go back to the manufacturer for replacement.

The odds against an itinerant IT hack coming into the shop and picking up a drive like this must be pretty big. Wish we had the same luck on the nags or the lottery.

inquirer

**dj_stick** · Jul 1, 2004, 02:35 PM

thats pretty funny

BWX · Jul 1, 2004, 04:21 PM

I bet it was the retailers fault- they sell stuff that customers return "as new" all the time.. I've gotten things that after I got home were obviously returned items..

Matth · Jul 1, 2004, 05:44 PM

A strong sense of deja vu - it's certainly not the first time, pretty certain it's happened with laptops and/or desktops before now.

Proportional to their size, not many, but then it shouldn't happen at all.

Logla · Jul 1, 2004, 06:16 PM

PC world are great in that respect.

I got a motherboard from them, built the machine, tested it for a couple of days, decided to put AS3 onto the NB cooler.

When I got everyhing back together, it didn't work. I was dismayed, and packed it all up, took it back to the store where I was given a replacement board, no questions asked and they didn't even open the box to check everything was there.

When I got home, I realised that I had forgot to put the RAID driver disks back in the box.

When I went back to the same store the following day to buy an 80mm fan, I noticed my old mobo sitting back on the shelf, being sold as new - and I knew if was mine because of the big scratch down the front of it.

Shocking!

BWX · Jul 2, 2004, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Logla

When I went back to the same store the following day to buy an 80mm fan, I noticed my old mobo sitting back on the shelf, being sold as new - and I knew if was mine because of the big scratch down the front of it.

Shocking!

Yeah, shocking the first time- I've seen stuff like that so much it doesn't surprise me at all anymore.

Falstaff · Jul 2, 2004, 03:05 AM

this one is for Sculley and Molder..............the truth is out there

Jul 1, 2004, 02:32 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	PC World sells "new" hard drive with personal data on A WESTERN DIGITAL hard drive sold as new in a major PC World outlet in London on Monday contained a couple's personal data including spreadsheets, VAT information and other sensitive information. We bought the Western Digital 20GB Caviar drive along with a CD drive from the Tottenham Court Road branch of PC World because we were building a new PC. But after the operating system software failed to install correctly, we examined the hard drive and found that it contained a number of Word documents and Excel wordsheets belonging to an individual and his partner, based in West London. The package was sold intact with a black and white security label saying "do not open before purchase", and was for sale with other new drives in the superstore. A representative for PC World said she was puzzled at how the incident could have occurred. She thought there were a couple of possibilities. Those were - that the drive was received in that condition from the manufacturer, or that the disk was returned by a customer as new and unused. She said that if the disk had been returned as defective it would have been returned to the warehouse. The Dixons Group has a returns policy where defective products go back to the manufacturer for replacement. The odds against an itinerant IT hack coming into the shop and picking up a drive like this must be pretty big. Wish we had the same luck on the nags or the lottery. inquirer

Jul 1, 2004, 04:21 PM	#3
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,669 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	I bet it was the retailers fault- they sell stuff that customers return "as new" all the time.. I've gotten things that after I got home were obviously returned items.. __________________

Jul 2, 2004, 03:05 AM	#7
Falstaff Old Codger Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: USAFA Posts: 19,048 Rep Power: 207	this one is for Sculley and Molder..............the truth is out there __________________ "Inspiration is always a surprising visitor."

Jul 1, 2004, 05:44 PM	#4
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	A strong sense of deja vu - it's certainly not the first time, pretty certain it's happened with laptops and/or desktops before now. Proportional to their size, not many, but then it shouldn't happen at all.

Jul 1, 2004, 06:16 PM	#5
Logla HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 3,311 Rep Power: 0	PC world are great in that respect. I got a motherboard from them, built the machine, tested it for a couple of days, decided to put AS3 onto the NB cooler. When I got everyhing back together, it didn't work. I was dismayed, and packed it all up, took it back to the store where I was given a replacement board, no questions asked and they didn't even open the box to check everything was there. When I got home, I realised that I had forgot to put the RAID driver disks back in the box. When I went back to the same store the following day to buy an 80mm fan, I noticed my old mobo sitting back on the shelf, being sold as new - and I knew if was mine because of the big scratch down the front of it. Shocking!