DATA OVERWRITING PROCESS FOR RETURNED PRODUCTS

This statement provides Seagate customers with an overview of what happens to data on products returned to Seagate. In order to protect your privacy and other interests in data, you should delete all data, or as much as possible, prior to returning any product to Seagate. Seagate realises, however, that you may not be able to erase certain data on returned products. In any event, Seagate will take the steps described in this statement to protect the physical security of such products and, if applicable, overwrite data on products repaired by Seagate.

Seagate has coordinated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) to ensure that any products repaired by Seagate are in compliance with, or exceed, the appropriate US Government specifications. The United States Department of Defence (DOD) provides certain standards regarding drive sanitation. The relevant specification, contained in the 1995 manual DOD 5220.22M, defines an accepted drive sanitation specification as an “overwrite of all addressable locations with a character, its complement and then a random character and verify”. Seagate has verified that not only does its repair process overwrite user-addressable locations a minimum of three times with verifications, but the process also overwrites the non-user-accessible locations with multiple character sets. Seagate uses random characters, high-frequency patterns and digital-zero patterns to match the drive design technologies.

The Seagate repair process ensures that all data is overwritten in a way that exceeds the DOD specifications. Seagate’s process of overwriting data may be considered an advantage among those in the health industry user community (e.g. HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, April 2003, enforces patient data privacy and confidentiality), the financial community, the government user community and other users that deal with sensitive data.

In addition to its process of overwriting data, Seagate also takes steps to ensure that the collection, warehousing, shipping, testing, refurbishing and scrapping of disc drives meet Seagate security standards, which generally exceed industry averages.

If you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Updated: 12 November 2008