Simple File Shredder and Other Tools to Ensure Computer Privacy
Christopher Null discusses several software programs, including Simple File Shredder (a free download) which will ensure that your deleted computer files are really deleted.
This is an old story but it’s worth telling again for those who don’t know it. Put simply: When you delete a file from your computer (and it needn’t be Windows, this is common to every type of PC), that file doesn’t “go away.” Rather, to save wear and tear on your hard drive and to simplify the operation, your computer just eliminates the record of where the file began. Think of your PC as containing a giant “shopping list” of all the files on its hard drive. Delete the canned peaches off that shopping list and the store doesn’t actually get rid of the peaches. It just “forgets” that they are there. The space allocated to the peaches remains there until the store needs the space for something else.
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