what about financial info and other info that is saved on my computer. I've got a file with passwords and account numbers on it. I've also got tax and income records on my laptop as well as my "regular computer".
How do I keep those out of the hands of repair guys that are helping me with my computer?
I've got a Wintel and a new MacBook pro. Each has a "secure" empty trash, does that "wipe" the excel spreadsheats, word perfect and tax software info off the hard drive so nobody can find the stuff?
Encryption is the best solution. There are several good commercially available encryption programs (PGP, BestCrypt, TrueCypt, etc). Set up a container to hold your financial and other sensitive documents, and only encrypt that container. Just don't forget your password, and don't store the password on the computer anywhere!
I've got a Wintel and a new MacBook pro. Each has a "secure" empty trash, does that "wipe" the excel spreadsheats, word perfect and tax software info off the hard drive so nobody can find the stuff?
I don't know what utility your systems use for "secure deletion", but as long as it overwrites the files with random data, as opposed to just marking the file deleted, you should be okay in most cases.