The office copier is the most commonly missed data-bearing device in any building, and it's the worst one to miss. It has scanned every contract, every HR file and every ID you've copied for years — and because it's leased, it leaves your building with all of that on it and goes to somebody else.
A modern multifunction printer is a computer with a scanner attached. It runs an operating system, it has a network address, and it has storage — usually a conventional hard drive, sometimes flash.
What ends up on it: scan-to-email and scan-to-folder jobs, print spool files, fax send and receive records, the address book of everyone your staff scan documents to, administrator credentials, and your network configuration including any credentials it uses to reach a file share. On many machines the scanned image is retained after the job finishes rather than being cleared.
In a law firm that is client files. In a medical practice it is charts. In an HR department it is the passports and licences you copied for onboarding. It is routinely the single richest device in the building and nobody has it on their asset register.
| You own the copier | The copier is leased | |
|---|---|---|
| Remove and destroy the drive | Simple, and what we'd do | Usually breaches the return condition |
| Run the built-in overwrite | Worth doing as well | Usually the main option available |
| Pay the lessor to sanitise it | Not needed | Often available — ask, and get it in writing |
| Buy the drive out at end of lease | n/a | Some lessors allow it — worth asking for sensitive data |
| Evidence you end up with | Certificate with the serial number | Whatever the lessor will put in writing |
Most business multifunction copiers do. They contain an internal hard drive used for scan jobs, print spooling and fax records, and on many machines scanned images are retained after the job completes rather than being cleared. That drive typically holds years of documents, along with the address book, administrator credentials and network settings.
Unless you do something about it, the drive goes back with the machine and its contents go with it. This is why it matters to ask the leasing company, in writing, what their end-of-lease data process is. Many manufacturers offer a drive sanitisation service or a drive-retention option, sometimes included and sometimes chargeable, but it is rarely applied automatically.
Usually not without breaching the lease, which generally requires the equipment returned complete and in working order. The common alternatives are to run the machine's built-in disk overwrite function, to ask the lessor to sanitise the drive as part of the return, or to ask to buy the drive out at end of lease, which some lessors permit when the data is sensitive.
Most business copiers have a data security or disk overwrite function in the administrator or service menu, which overwrites stored job data. Run it, and keep any confirmation page the machine prints. Clear the address book and job logs separately, as they are often not covered by the disk overwrite. If you own the machine outright, removing and destroying the drive is more certain than any built-in function.
Yes. Florida's requirement to dispose of records containing personal information so they cannot be read applies to the records, not to a category of device, and a copier drive holding scanned documents is squarely within that. For a medical practice the same device is holding protected health information under HIPAA.
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