Think shredded papers are private? Think again.

[thewayne]

DARPA issued a challenge which 9,000 teams took up: reassemble shredded documents to recover the information therein. One team created a software program that did the work for them and was quite successful.

So Homeland Security will be getting a new tool to fight "terrorism".

I guess now the only safe way to ensure the privacy of documents that you want to destroy is to shred, then burn. There was an interesting comment that claimed that an embassy would shred then soak the shredded remains in water, making paper mache pulp. That could be useful if you were a crafty person, I wonder if it would make a good fuel if you formed it in to logs.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/darpa-shredder-challenge-2/

Comments

[silveradept]

I'd say 50K was probably an awful cheap deal for the ability to reassemble shredded documents. Not that there isn't some sort of useful civilian purpose for this technology, but I'm wondering whether we should also start covering shredded documents under the requirements for warrants, now that they can be demonstrably reassembled.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

That's what I was wondering. We had a case here about 15 years ago where the cops found evidence of a crime in someone's trash. They claimed it was in the public and they didn't need a warrant to go through it. The response was that, then, it couldn't be stated with certainty that the trash was from the relevant house, anyone could have put it there.

[silveradept]

A very nice defense. I hope it worked.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I don't know if that was the argument the judge used, but I believe the evidence was rendered inadmissable.