What does the office photocopier know about you?

I just came across this video of a CBS news report on the potential privacy risk of photocopiers.  I definitely had no idea that most of today’s photocopiers actually keep a digital copy of every print, fax and copy that is made.  It never even occurred to me that photocopiers would need to have hard drives, much less that manufacturers would purposely store images on them.

Needless to say, this has significantly changed the way that I think about copiers…

How many times have you used the office machine for personal use?  I know I’ve copied all kinds of things from resumes to my driver’s license and birth certificate.  It’s pretty unnerving to think that when my office got a new copier, the old one may have been sold to someone who already knew about this.  But that’s not even the worst of it – how many employers actually do know about it and are using it to check-up on employees?

And I don’t even want to think about all the times I have made copies of personal information at Staples and other copy shops.

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