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How You May Lose Your Identity on The Web

If you have ever posted Word documents on the Web, beware that relatively simple and inexpensive tools readily available allow individuals to view information that you thought was deleted. If you typed in your social security number and deleted it, your identity could easily be stolen.

An AT&T researcher in the United States was able to unearth hidden information from many thousands of Microsoft Word documents posted online using a few freely available software tools and some basic programming techniques.

New Scientist August 15, 2003