Here is a news report that explains well something we have been telling our clients for a while now. Multifunction machines, scanners, printers, photocopiers, etc. contain hard drives which capture ALL documents that run through them, unless you take action!

This means that any confidential (personal information, privileged material, commercial and industrial secrets, etc.)  information contained on the documents you print, copy or scan on a daily basis are retained on the hard drive contained in the machine unless it is wiped or set not to record images. That means, in many cases, you and/or your organisation are violating different statutes and regulations every day… As explained in this news report, this situation is exacerbated when you decommission these machines and give or sell them to third parties who, in turn, send them abroad to be reused or recycled: