Man's personal data still on "new" hard drive

The answer is this is a can of beans and we've only got halfway round the top of said can.

It is a jigsaw puzzle, so bear with us because we've one of those funny bits which just has blue sky and, er, jigs.

The story so far. We bought, yes bought, a drive from PC World in Tottenham Court Road, found all sorts of data on it, rang the DSG group, then contacted Western Digital, the latter confirming the drive was sold to London distributor CMS. WD is a commendable company - see the tracking slip below.

We emailed the distributor CMS asking how far it had got tracking down said WD disk, and there the trail went cold.

CMS doesn't appear to want to talk to folk like the INQ, perhaps because we are not "re-sellers". Sheesh!

Our second to last option is to call the man and his wife with data on the "new" hard drive we bought, but that'd be pre-empting the trail, even though we have his and her details sitting in a "brand new storage device" with VAT returns, passport applications, client details and the like. [Hint. He is an important person working for Channel Four, CMS. Ed.]

Dixons did promise it would get back to us. CMS said nothing and still has said nothing. We haven't called the chap and chappette yet, but we think we might try another part of the puzzle first.

The Data Registrar should surely know about this terrible breach of personal data.

Rest assured. When we get all the pieces together, it will make a nice picture. We might even apply for a refund from PC World at that point. Meanwhile, the drive is in the safe, along with the VAT receipt. µ

See Also
PC World sells "new" hard drive with personal data on
Western Digital says Dixons drive clean when it shipped Mystifying!