Scandals

Deleted photos can come back and haunt you, says Chong

KUALA LUMPUR: Beware! With computer softwares that are able to recover deleted data from handphones and personal computers, pictures or videos that are assumed long gone can still come back to haunt you.

Since 2007, there have been more than 13 cases of women who have had their private pictures publicly flaunted on the Internet or via the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

“Most of these cases involved women whose former partners exposed the private photos out of spite,” said MCA Public Services and Complaints Department Head Datuk Michael Chong at a press conference yesterday.

He added that most people were unaware that simply deleting the photos from handphones were insufficient as there were ways to extract the deleted data.

Selangor and Federal Territory Telecommunication Association acting committee member Ivan Er said free, easy-to-use data restoration programmes were easily available on the Internet.

“With just a mere click of the mouse, all deleted data can be restored,” said Er, adding that users should reformat and demagnitise their storage mediums after data deletion as a precaution.

Er also warned that servers of communication service providers could keep records of video calls as there was no stopping rogue employees.

“The privacy policies of these telco companies disallow it, of course,” he said.

The association aims to educate users on the latest frauds and hazards of the telecommunication in­­dustry.

quoted from The Star, Tuesday February 14, 2009.

So there's no way to avoid scandal cases like Edison Chan & Elizabeth Wong. Bear in mind that, don't record while you are having affairs. Lol.