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it is in their business interest to NOT find any personal information (since then they would have to return the items), so I presume they just quickly discard a

by 0x9000 9y ago

it is in their business interest to NOT find any personal information (since then they would have to return the items), so I presume they just quickly discard any papers or other things found in the bag, and reformats the laptops without looking at them first. I mean, how likely is it that a laptop has NO personal information on it?!

tbihl 9y ago
Are you expecting them to boot from a flash drive and snoop through files? That just doesn't seem a realistic expectation, nor even one I would want them to be doing.
- minikites 9y ago
  Would you consider paging through a paper notebook to be the same level of effort and/or privacy concern? I don't think paging through paper notebook is that far removed from going into the user's (probably only one) documents folder and looking for something like "hist301 final paper.doc" to find someone's name. If the paper notebook starts to look like a personal diary, you stop, in the same way you don't click on "company secrets.doc"
  - oarsinsync 9y ago
    Flipping through a paper note book takes seconds. Given the timeframes, suspended laptops will have flat batteries. Timeframe is now several minutes just to find the charger, plug in and power on. One of these can occur simply by accident depending on how you pick it up. The other requires wilful actions. Levels of effort / concern for privacy are exponentially different.
gbacon 9y ago
Having layers (first the airlines and then Unclaimed Baggage) makes it not just twice as unlikely but thousands of times less likely that belongings will be stolen in the way you describe. Managers of a family-owned business in operation for nearly fifty years have to have low time-preference and future orientation enough to realize that scamming an expensive item would be foolish when they have an entire warehouse of legitimately acquired merchandise. Moreover, the goodwill from a story about reuniting a sentimental memento or a hard-to-replace valuable (“That laptop had the only copy of my dissertation!”) is most certainly in their business interest.
CompuHacker 9y ago
Equipment there occasionally have phone numbers and other identifying marks in non-obvious spots. Multimeters have traceable calibration certificates and flash drives and laptops are wiped by hand by something called "Operations", a separate part of the business. They are incapable of handling SAS drives, and they are sold unwiped. Don't worry about that.

by 0x9000 9y ago

tbihl 9y ago

Are you expecting them to boot from a flash drive and snoop through files? That just doesn't seem a realistic expectation, nor even one I would want them to be doing.

minikites 9y ago
Would you consider paging through a paper notebook to be the same level of effort and/or privacy concern? I don't think paging through paper notebook is that far removed from going into the user's (probably only one) documents folder and looking for something like "hist301 final paper.doc" to find someone's name. If the paper notebook starts to look like a personal diary, you stop, in the same way you don't click on "company secrets.doc"
- oarsinsync 9y ago
  Flipping through a paper note book takes seconds. Given the timeframes, suspended laptops will have flat batteries. Timeframe is now several minutes just to find the charger, plug in and power on. One of these can occur simply by accident depending on how you pick it up. The other requires wilful actions. Levels of effort / concern for privacy are exponentially different.

gbacon 9y ago

Having layers (first the airlines and then Unclaimed Baggage) makes it not just twice as unlikely but thousands of times less likely that belongings will be stolen in the way you describe. Managers of a family-owned business in operation for nearly fifty years have to have low time-preference and future orientation enough to realize that scamming an expensive item would be foolish when they have an entire warehouse of legitimately acquired merchandise. Moreover, the goodwill from a story about reuniting a sentimental memento or a hard-to-replace valuable (“That laptop had the only copy of my dissertation!”) is most certainly in their business interest.

CompuHacker 9y ago

Equipment there occasionally have phone numbers and other identifying marks in non-obvious spots. Multimeters have traceable calibration certificates and flash drives and laptops are wiped by hand by something called "Operations", a separate part of the business. They are incapable of handling SAS drives, and they are sold unwiped. Don't worry about that.