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05 Mar 2007
A US citizen is suing Microsoft for $200,000 after Internet Explorer failed to delete his history of pornography sites.
Michael Alan Crooker bought an HP computer running Windows XP and Internet Explorer from retailer Circuit City, and said that he was assured it would protect his privacy.
But when he was arrested on firearms charges, police cracked the PC's security and found his internet surfing history, along with videos of himself and his girlfriend engaged in sexual acts.
Crooker used a common security utility known as DriveLock which shuts down the hard drive if a password is not given.
But the FBI were able to bypass this by taking a mirror image of his hard drive which revealed his complete internet history, despite Internet Explorer being set to delete all records every five days.
"Any day beyond those parameters is supposed to be permanently deleted and is not supposed to be recoverable," Crooker stated in the lawsuit.
He added that he suffered "great embarrassment" over the details and other information found on the computer.
Crooker is now suing Microsoft for $200,000 and claims to have already reached settlements in similar cases with HP and Circuit City.
The man is currently residing in a Connecticut jail awaiting trial for selling illegally modified firearms and possessing bomb-making equipment.
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way past 3 strikes
We have to pay for courts, jail and law enforecment for scum like this? Microsoft should sue the government for not locking this nut case up permanently. And put him to work scrubbing out Microsofts toliets for life. Yes that would come out of our pocket too, but put egg in the face of government officials that let lunatics like this run around and file frivolous lawsuits and make defamatory statements. Thanks FBI! But please don't forget it's a Constitional duty for U.S. citizens to maintain military superiority over the government.
Posted by: greg collins 09 Mar 2007
Duh!?!
NOTHING on PC is EVER PRIVATE. If you type it or load it, it is permanent! Everyone should know that after all the years that PC's have been around.
Posted by: Jill 07 Mar 2007
Stupid.....
Just because you delete it doesnt mean its gone... Hello i thought this was common sense that the FBI (hell whoever) can retrive deleted data from the hdd unless you write to every Sector
Posted by: Neil 06 Mar 2007