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FTC Targets Copy Machine Privacy Concerns

Posted by kdawson on from the hotting-up dept.

itwbennett writes "In a letter to US Representative Ed Markey, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said that the FTC has begun contacting copy machine makers, resellers, and office supply stores to inform them about privacy concerns over the images that can be stored on the machines' hard drives and trying to 'determine whether they are warning their customers about these risks ... and whether manufacturers and resellers are providing options for secure copying.'"

4 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. About time... by FaxeTheCat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was involved in a tender for MFCs five years ago, this was one of the issues raised... by the vendors. Some claimed they were the only ones that had it, but they were wrong. All the major ones had it. At that time they offered both encryption of all userdata on the local hard drive, and also automatic overwriting of all user data after it was printed.
    At the time these were options that one needed to pay extra for, but for anybody concerned with privacy issues, it was available.

    One can, of course, ask why the above options are not standard. After all, it is just a question of enabling some software options.

    1. Re:About time... by ducomputergeek · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why leave money on the table? If you can charge more for those features, do so. If they really are just a configuration change, then you can offer those modules "free" or at a "substantial discount" if you need to make the sale else never take less than what the customer is willing to give you.

      --
      "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
  2. That's nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's nothing.

    Lots of places still use old brother fax / copy / print machines which utilize "ribbons" instead of ink or toner. This is what they look like

    PC-301

    It's basically a big carbon transfer sheet. You find these old machines in doctors offices. law offices. etc. Where the owner is too lazy to upgrade their hardware.

    They throw out the used ribbon. Guess what? Its literally hundreds of feet of perfect, inverted copies of faxed information. Forms with medical information. SSN numbers. Private legal information. ETC.

    All it requires is someone to be lazy enough to throw it away, and someone else bored enough to go dumpster dive.

  3. Re:There machines don't need hard drives. by ArundelCastle · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe I want a copy of what I'm copying to remain on the hard drive for easy retrieval and reuse later?

    Missing the point. The copier's hard drive is basically a black box in most cases.
    A) The copier probably already has a save to network, and send via e-mail function. Why wouldn't you choose that?
    B) In most cases the copier's hard drive is by default completely inaccessible to the end user. There's no browse feature.
    C) To access the data, you need to purchase a support package and use a proprietary tool.
    D) To delete the data, you need to purchase a support package and use a proprietary tool.

    This is a cash grab for the copier manufacturers. A safety net that most people don't know existed unless they place a frantic support call.
    The reporting expose proved that there is no promise that the manufacturer will wipe drives after their lease is up, and if you do not know it exists, how can you plan to wipe it yourself if you re-sell it?