Legal Matters...

Hopefully one day my tiny little business will grow to be a larger operating enterprise with multiple employees using different sources of technology for many different purposes. However, at the beginning all business transactions will be done mainly on one computer--it will store all of my clients personal information for purpose of keeping track of who bought how much of my product and for shipment information. Storing this information in this fashion serves as a possible threat to my customers if it isn't handled in the right way or is seen by the wrong people.

Identity theft is an increasing problem in the United States due to the increase online transaction and the mishandling of clients' personal information within businesses. That is why I plan on locking that information in a way that only authorized personnel and I have access to it. Also, if a computer with this information must be thrown out I will destroy the hard drive completely by either pulverizing, shredding or melting the it as well as getting a broken piece of the hard drive fixed while closely watching the person do it. I will never sell a hard drive (external or internal) on the internet with important personal information on it because there is still a large chance that someone can read previously stored information even if the drive is reformatted.

I know this seems a little extreme, but I feel that as a business owner I have the responsibility of keeping my clients' information safe from those who could potentially steal it. Looking ahead, I could also use such computer forensic techniques to track and see what my employees are doing during their work time by getting the information of the company computer's drive. This is to ensure all online time during work is geared towards the product and all internet use is appropriate for the workplace. Now that I think of it, I should probably learn how to execute such a task... right? Oh well! I got some time...