Industry members are reacting to a recent CBC investigative report which probed the second-life of a Canon ImageRunner Colour 3200 after purchasing it from a UPS Store on Kijiji retail site and finding information was easily obtained from the hard drive using a laptop.

　　Canon senior manager, sales, training and development Sean Murray says the Image Runner Colour 3200 used in the investigation was maanufactured eight years ago and is old compared to the security features available on more current models. He said there are a number of security features available to protect data, including an option which erases data on an ongoing basis. It's just a matter of “how many deadbolts you want to put on.”

　　Ricoh director of product marketing George Wilkinson says as an ISO operation they are very concerned with the safety of information stored on its photo copiers. He says the instance studied by the CBC is an unusual one, but admits there is latent information on its machines at all times. Options are available for Ricoh machines both at end of life and during use to scrub data from the copiers, says Wilkinson. “We can even physically take the hard drive out and give it to the customer so they can do whatever they want with it when they sell it,” he says. “Some of the older machines are easier to get information from, but there are still a number of things that a customer can do at the time of purchase.”