Acer laptop repair

[Redrum]

Hi,

I recently had to send an Acer laptop back for a warranty repair. It would no longer charge or run off the mains but was otherwise working. When the fault happened, I had about 15% battery life, so I did what I could within that 15% to clear off private data, but since the fault was nothing to do with the drive, I was expecting to get the same drive back.

Anyway, the repair sheet that came back with it said the mainboard was faulty and needed replacing, but after that they also found fault codes with the hard drive so they replaced it.

I used it for work so it had sensitive work data on it. The data was heavily encrypted and hopefully I deleted everything but I still don't like the idea of someone having it.

I went on the Acer chat to ask how they disposed of the old drive. Here's an exert of the transcript:

Baskar: I checked our records.
Baskar: During the repair, the hard drive and the main board have been replaced.
Baskar: redrum, the old hard drive will be disposed.
Baskar: The data on the hard drive will not be accessed by anyone.
redrum: OK, but my question is how it is disposed of? I am happy for it to be disposed, but it should be securely destroyed, not just put in a bin.
Baskar: redrum, we would not just put the hard drive in a bin. However, I will not be able to confirm exact method the hard drive will be disposed.
Baskar: Acer will follow the norms provided by the government.
redrum: OK. That's not very reassuring but I guess that's all you can tell me.
Baskar: Thank you for your understanding.

My question is do you think that is an acceptable answer? Clearly the guy had no idea what happened to the old drive. I don't think the government publishes a "norm" for companies disposing of clients' broken hard drives.

 

[Monkeh]

I would guess they would have to dispose of it within the guidelines set in the Data Protection Act and is what they meant by the norms by the government.