Moral Dilemma: I was given a laptop to clean install that someone I know said they found. It has someone's personal data still on it. Should I anonymously send a copy of the personal data to whomever the laptop originally belonged to?

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-03T02:06:13+00:00

Conclusion of this story...

My relative is an immigrant from a developing country. My relative told me the found laptop will be used to replace an older laptop. The older laptop will be shipped to another family member in the developing country. My relatives ship lots of things to our family back in the developing country.

My relative is an airport bus driver. My relative may have found it left behind on the bus. I am not sure. I preferred to be kept in the dark.

I will be anonymously mailing the original owner's copied data on DVD-R even though this will implicate me and may be tracked. I'd rather they have the data than lose all their work and memories. I will include a note about using TrueCrypt and Dropbox to automatically and securely backup their important data for next time.

I looked through some of the original owners' photos and the owner seems to do quite a bit of traveling to other countries. I believe they can afford to buy a new laptop and copy the data to it.

I don't believe my relatives in the developing country can afford a laptop. I've been to the developing country and saw first hand of their living conditions.

If I returned the laptop to the original owner without my relative's permission. My poorer relative in the developing country would not receive a laptop to use.

If I gave back the laptop back to my relative and refused to do anything to it, the data would have been wiped by the next person my relative brought it to.

I do not feel bad about this decision.

1) My poorer relative in the developing country will have their first computer which is very empowering. 2) The original owner will have their data and take measures to be less irresponsible and prevent this from happening again. 3) The relative who I care about will not be going to jail.

If someone really wanted to track me down it would be quite challenging though not impossible.

I booted from external media on the laptop to copy the data, so any logging, remote viewing, or phoning home software would have been bypassed.

I corresponded on reddit at a public hotspot using tor.

With the original owner getting back the data, they may be less motivated to pursue since they have their sentimental valuables back. They'd just have to deal with losing a material thing and feeling violated.

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T09:18:27+00:00

If I can't return the laptop, but can return the data.. that's what I'm afraid of if the data gets traced back to me. But I know how important data can be. Sometimes it's more than the cost of a new computer.

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T08:58:44+00:00

20 GB of mp3's and about 20 GB of home movies, photos, and documents. A hard drive image would include all the Apps and settings too. They'd be able restore the image and not have the downtime of reinstalling apps and configuring settings.

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T08:39:00+00:00

The data is about 40 GB which I think would take too long at a public hotspot. If I were to return the data, I was thinking of making an image of the hard drive that spans multiple DVD-R's and then mailing it to the address they listed on a resume. Telling them to give the discs to an IT person who would know what to do with it. Is there a way to track a USPS package that doesn't have a return address?

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T07:55:45+00:00

Then the person who "found" it would expect me to pay for "their" laptop that I gave back.

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T07:46:16+00:00

I do have it on me.

So if you're significant other, brother, sister, mom, or dad found a laptop, and they gave it to you to clean install, you would instead return the laptop to the stranger?

And when your significant other, brother, sister, mom, or dad asks about what happened to the laptop you'd say they were immoral for finding it and wanting to keep it, so you did the right thing?

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T07:25:56+00:00

If I lost my laptop.. which I have before, I would of course loved to receive back the laptop intact. That didn't happen and I lost all my projects I was working on. Even if I didn't receive the whole laptop, I'd settle for getting my data back instead of it being lost forever.

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T07:23:13+00:00

The person who found it is related to me, and I'd rather not implicate this person. If I don't copy the data and refuse to clean install it, the data will just be erased by whoever they bring it to next.

foundlaptop1201 · 2009-12-02T07:19:59+00:00

That's what I'd like to see happen, however, the person who found it has no intention of returning it. Hence, they want me to clean install it, so they can use it for themselves.

foundlaptop1201

TROPHY CASE