Your Personal Information for Sale

Senator Bill Nelson wants to protect your identity because he’s a victim of identity theft himself. “Two days ago, American Express called and said we notice some suspicious purchases and sure enough they caught it. Someone was using the number from my card and they picked it up from someplace,” Nelson told CALL FOR ACTION.

Our investigation uncovered one way thieves might get your information.

For just $50 dollars, CALL FOR ACTION purchased ten used hard drives on eBay. We then took them to computer expert, John Benkert with CPR Tools.

“Were you surprised when you looked at these how readily available that information was available on these drives?” asked CALL FOR ACTION Reporter Melissa Yeager during our initial story.

“Shocked is probably more the term,” Benkert replied.

The drives held all kinds of personal information; like bank accounts, credit cards, social security numbers, even pharmacy prescriptions. Everything we’d need to steal someones identity.

We traced the information back to major companies.

Two companies, Sears and Giant Foods of Maryland sent technicians to Fort Myers to examine the drives.

Neither company could tell us how their customers personal information ended up on hard drives for sale on eBay.

Sears told us, “The data on these hard drives appears to be from accounts which expired between 1999 and 2004.”

They admitted at least 40 instances of credit card numbers with enough information to identify the customer. That response disturbs our expert.

“It upsets me and it should upset everybody that any..if your data is stolen if you information is out there, whether it’s one person or 230 million,” said Benkert.

To stop more invasions of privacy, Senator Nelson is sponsoring a bill. His proposed legislation targets any company or agency that has your personal information. It will require companies to have a written plan for successfully destroying those records.

Nelson says our investigation supports the need for his bill.

“Because you all did that, and thank you for doing that, you have pointed out another invasion of the privacy,” said Nelson.

Along with laws designed to keep information out of the hands of thieves, computer experts say attitudes need to change too.

Benkert told CALL FOR ACTION, “I never had a shredder ten years ago. So if we look at it like that and make protecting data on hard drives a habit, I think that we’ll be better off. We’ll have less data breaches and less identity theft. And thieves are always looking for a way to get what you have, and identity theft is the easiest way.”

If a company has your information, you don’t have a lot of control over what they do with it. Benkert wants to change that. He’s now working with state lawmakers in Tallahassee to draft legislation that would tell companies exactly how to get rid of data. His advice: make sure you clear all your personal hard drives and take them to a reputable company who will clear them and provide you written documentation that they did it.

After our story aired, eBay contacted CALL FOR ACTION with this statement from spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe: “eBay urges consumers to take appropriate steps to ensure that personal information is removed from the PC or hard drive prior to the sale. There are programs and companies that can aid in this process.”