illegal images ?????
Hmmmmm
maybe this is what he mean.... caused it is so private

_________________
Спасибо
СУТИОНО / АПИНГ

Any company that knows what it is doing will be able to supply the customer with a legal document applying the privacy isues and sealing trust regarding sensitive data. My colmpany does this on a regular basis

With regards to looking at or accessing customer data, it is all technically illegal to recover downloaded films etc. off customer drives because you are processing the digitally copyrighted media through you RAM which in turn is making an illegal copy of said film.

And I know you all take copies for yourself!!!

_________________
The last I heard of God he was worshiping me

If you come across illegal content you must report to the correct authority. Illegal content counters any NDA or Data Protection Act Law.

Simple as that.......

Film downloading probably needs to be looked at by each individual data recovery company because of copyrite issues. However I think (don't quote me) people are allowed to keep a backup of their films ;o)

In the UK downloading of films and music (illegaly)has almost stopped because ISP's provide IP info to copywrite owners.

What I recovery has changed over the years for sure.. Most contain personal data only.

_________________
All went well until I plugged the drive in.

I would bet IP spoofing/proxy services are very popular in the UK...

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Uk is one of the most highly monitored in the world.. If you fart, Gordon brown smells it

LMAO

_________________
All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Criminal law has higher standing than common or business law. Data protection act covers this, professionally written NDA's will also contain a reference to this, some say you are supposed to notify the client before sending data to the police/authorities but each case is unique and as above - criminal law is higher, so first contact the authorities and explain what you have found, then give them a copy of the NDA with the evidence.

<itch>

_________________
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/

Having some background experience in this, the "authorities" very often will not want to bother with most cases including cases as extreme as Illegal porn. Often is the case that proving ownership of indecent material is very very hard and most cases can be as circumstantial.

The other side of the coin is that we are not a police state (yet) and as data recovery techs we are not police. The retrieval and salvaging of data is our business and policing customer’s data is nothing really to do with is. Even though I would love to string up every basta*d who has indecent illegal material on his machine and beat them to death with their own soggy limbs that I just severed off with a rusty spoon

_________________
The last I heard of God he was worshiping me

I thought the owner of the medium was the only responsible about the content. Usually if imaging is OK you don't have to be in contact with the data. Anyway the argument is disputed.

Imaging a drive is fine. Its when you actually open a file to check any integrity etc. Opening that file reproduces an illegal image and the person who opened it is responsible.

In turn it is not OK to keep backups of anything. To play it down to the wire even copying CD's to and MP3 can be illegal because you are altering the state of the original recording. You should really get owners concent first.

almost all the issues mention are grey areas and we have stemmed from the main topic quite a bit. The original question was about a confidentiality agreement between client and company. This is an issue easily resolved with my earlier responces

_________________
The last I heard of God he was worshiping me

Creating a necessary backup copy, for your own use, of computer software to which you have a legitimate licence. This means you can protect yourself, but does NOT mean you can make a copy of a game to give a mate, or copy his games. This statutory permission does NOT apply to audio CD's, DVD's, etc.


So we shouldn't recover downloaded films or ripped audio

_________________
All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Yeah thats pretty much what I am saying.

_________________
The last I heard of God he was worshiping me

So what would happen if a client sends a job in, requires movies and music, approves the cost, authorises the work, yet refuses to pay unless you retrieve the data required, which is these movies and music?

Also, dont a lot of DR websites state that they can retrieve 'all retrievable data' or no charge? Isnt illegal, and downloaded software/movies/music stilll retrievable?

Yes the movies and music etc. can still be recovered in the sense that "all retrievable data" does not mean you are opening the files yourself.

If the customer uses these file illegally then that is their doing.

Also "all retrievable data" as you put it means data that you can take of the drive. Does not mean it has to work!

and any way if customer has made a "legal backup" of their audio and visual files then Im sure they have the hard copy to back up again

_________________
The last I heard of God he was worshiping me

WOW! Thanks everyone! I can't believe the amount of feedback I've had. I made an identical post at another HD recovery forum yesterday at the same time, and haven't had a single response there yet.

scratchy - Thanks for mentioning that. We will contact our merchant bank to see what their terms and guidelines are for a situation like this. Perhaps they will say that an NDA is acceptable, or have a company or two they could even recommend.

drccsc - I understand a DR professional couldn't verify data is intact without viewing its contents to some extent. I was wondering if it were possible for us to take the responsibility if the data came back as garbage. The thought that customer credit card numbers would be viewed by someone we don't know, and sitting on someone else's server for a while, is bothersome. We don't want to make the news like many other companies that wound up releasing through various inadvertent means tens of thousands (or more) of pieces of customers information.

harddrivespecialist / Cleanroom / cryoborgofthevenus - Thanks, I'll speak with a few companies about a data integrity waiver, chain of custody records, and possibly having a person to check the data in-house. We do have records against two clients that we will be taking to court for not paying bills. Those records we aren't as concerned about for confidentiality, it's really the customer information.

also harddrivespecialist - LOL. Sorry for not having logged back on so quickly. I've been pretty busy lately. Although the data is important to get back, in the end it doesn't matter much to us whether it's in a few days or a few weeks, so I'm not spending every waking moment on this.

This is a high traffic forum, but i suggest to take a look into your mailbox as well.

Janos

I totally understand your concern. You would have to be awfully trusting of any company you were willing to make such an agreement with, though.

What if you could say "don't view anything in these specific locations"? Then if logical recovery was needed the tech would still have something to work with.

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Many places have laws that would hold you responsible for the illegal material if you DIDN'T report it.

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

A thought....

If you don't report something that is obviously wrong or highly illegal your just as bad as the pervert or criminal....

I will add a shotgun into my clean room equipment if this ever happens ;o)

_________________
All went well until I plugged the drive in.