>The article tells me that people are not careful about their data (in that these hard drives still had critical data on them) and that we need to be more concerned with how and where we put data so we can protect them.


Exactly! We take security seriously where I work. Sensitive data in laptops is restricted and encrypted. We do not allow connections of personal devices (notebooks, laptops, PDAs) to the corporate network.

Old hardrives are always destroyed. When we get rid of old machines, they have no usable harddrive. All other users with sensitive, private info should do the same.