<_< Wonders what kowenicki is into that makes him incinerate old drives.

Are you the dad from Hanna?

Good thing I never chuck out my HDD's.

It only divulges everything. (Wait, wrong console.)

Eh, you have this problem with everything that has a hard drive. That information gets stored, even for a short time, somewhere and if you don't wipe it correctly then someone can get it.

This is just one of those sensationalist headlines but at least it will make people delete things better.

Does anyone store their Credit card details LOCALLY???? No, no-one does. I dont think your able to do it at the first place.

VG247

Microsoft has responded to a report inked by a research group at Drexel University claiming refurbished Xbox 360 hard drives retained the credit card information of previous owners.

Here’s the response provided to Joystiq by Microsoft’s manager of interactive entertainment business, Jim Alkove:

“We are conducting a thorough investigation into the researchers’ claims. We have requested information that will allow us to investigate the console in question and have still not received the information needed to replicate the researchers’ claims.

“Xbox is not designed to store credit card data locally on the console, and as such seems unlikely credit card data was recovered by the method described. Additionally, when Microsoft refurbishes used consoles we have processes in place to wipe the local hard drives of any other user data. We can assure Xbox owners we take the privacy and security of their personal data very seriously.”

In other words, Microsoft said it’s not possible, but it’s still looking into the matter.

The real problem here is that formatting your HDD doesn't actually delete your data. It's still accessible by hackers who get their hands on it. Microsoft should let people know that.

I imagine the same applies to all HDDs even the ones on your PS3.