{"id":13352,"date":"2009-11-18T17:02:12","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T22:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=13352"},"modified":"2009-11-18T17:02:12","modified_gmt":"2009-11-18T22:02:12","slug":"ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Leo: Secure Delete – What is it and do I need it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"askleo\"<\/p>\n

By Leo Notenboom<\/p>\n

Although there are many software utilities that claim to be able to delete
\ndata files from hard drives securely and thoroughly, can’t you accomplish the
\nsame thing simply by overwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive
\nones?<\/p>\n

To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I suppose that also
\ndepend on the level of sensitivity of your data.<\/p>\n

But you are correct in the implication that a plain old “delete” isn’t
\nnearly enough.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at that, and how far you might need to go.<\/p>\n

As you may already know, deleting a file in Windows doesn’t actually delete
\nthe data. In fact, it doesn’t really even delete the file – in Windows Explorer
\nif you delete a file it just gets moved to the recycle bin. The file’s not
\nreally deleted until the recycle bin gets too full, or until you empty it
\nyourself.<\/p>\n

Naturally it’s trivial to go digging around in the recycle bin to see what’s
\nbeen “deleted”, and recover it intact.<\/p>\n

“Because of the way magnetic material on hard disks
\nworks, it might be possible to actually recover data that has been
\noverwritten.”<\/div>\n

Even a “permanent” delete after, or bypassing, the recycle bin doesn’t
\nreally delete the data. In a sense, it just tells Windows “This space over here
\nwhere there used to be a file? You can put something else there, if you
\nlike.”<\/p>\n

It’s kind of like moving out of an apartment by only taking your name off of
\nthe door. Until someone moves in and replaces with their own, all your stuff is
\nstill inside and available to anyone who knows how to look for it.<\/p>\n

That’s where the concept of “secure delete” comes in. A secure delete
\noverwrites the data in the file when the file is deleted. This takes longer, of
\ncourse, as it has to actually go access the entire file, but it ensure that the
\ndata is no longer accessible to the casual observer. It’s kind of like making
\nsure your apartment is empty – or at least full of stuff that isn’t yours –
\nbefore leave.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately simply overwriting one file with another does not do this. The
\nproblem is that you can’t control where the operating system is going to write
\nthe data. Depending on how the copy is implemented it may copy the data to a
\nnew file on the hard disk, delete your old file, and then rename the new file
\nto the old file. (A very common technique.) Note the “delete” in the middle –
\nthat’s not a secure delete. Your data is still out on the hard disk.<\/p>\n

So, what does Leo recommend?<\/a><\/p>\n

[This post is excerpted with Leo’s permission from his Ask Leo<\/a> blog.]<\/p>\n

Leo Notenboom has been involved in the tech industry for nearly 30 years. After retiring from an 18 year career as a Microsoft Software Engineer Leo went on to create Ask Leo!<\/a>, a free web site where he answers real questions from ordinary computer users.<\/i><\/p>\n

FaceBook URL: Leo’s Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter URL: http:\/\/twitter.com\/askleo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"askleo\"<\/p>\n

By Leo Notenboom<\/p>\n

Although there are many software utilities that claim to be
\nable to delete data files from hard drives securely and
\nthoroughly, can’t you accomplish the same thing simply by
\noverwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive ones?<\/p>\n

To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I
\nsuppose that also depend on the level of sensitivity of your
\ndata.<\/p>\n

But you are correct in the implication that a plain old
\n“delete” isn’t nearly enough.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at that, and how far you might need to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":66012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2754,2755,1398,1476,112,2756,2757,11,229,823],"class_list":["post-13352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leo-notenboom","tag-apartment","tag-casual-observer","tag-disk","tag-hard-disks","tag-kind","tag-magnetic-material","tag-sensitive-files","tag-software","tag-windows","tag-windows-explorer"],"yoast_head":"\nAsk Leo: Secure Delete - What is it and do I need it?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Leo Notenboom Although there are many software utilities that claim to be able to delete data files from hard drives securely and thoroughly, can't you accomplish the same thing simply by overwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive ones? To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I suppose that also depend on the level of sensitivity of your data. But you are correct in the implication that a plain old "delete" isn't nearly enough. Let's look at that, and how far you might need to go.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ask Leo: Secure Delete - What is it and do I need it?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Leo Notenboom Although there are many software utilities that claim to be able to delete data files from hard drives securely and thoroughly, can't you accomplish the same thing simply by overwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive ones? To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I suppose that also depend on the level of sensitivity of your data. But you are correct in the implication that a plain old "delete" isn't nearly enough. Let's look at that, and how far you might need to go.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PC Matic Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-18T22:02:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leo Notenboom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leo Notenboom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Leo Notenboom\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed90798b38aa4ab74e12591da7ab21d5\"},\"headline\":\"Ask Leo: Secure Delete – What is it and do I need it?\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-18T22:02:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":538,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"keywords\":[\"apartment\",\"casual observer\",\"Disk\",\"hard disks\",\"Kind\",\"magnetic material\",\"sensitive files\",\"software\",\"Windows\",\"windows explorer\"],\"articleSection\":[\"leo notenboom\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ask Leo: Secure Delete - What is it and do I need it?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-18T22:02:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"By Leo Notenboom Although there are many software utilities that claim to be able to delete data files from hard drives securely and thoroughly, can't you accomplish the same thing simply by overwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive ones? To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I suppose that also depend on the level of sensitivity of your data. But you are correct in the implication that a plain old \\\"delete\\\" isn't nearly enough. Let's look at that, and how far you might need to go.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/pcmatic-fallback.png\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ask Leo: Secure Delete – What is it and do I need it?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"PC Matic Blog\",\"description\":\"Tech Tips and Tricks\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png\",\"width\":1535,\"height\":483,\"caption\":\"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA.\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/pcmatic\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/pcmatic\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/pcmaticusa\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/pcmatic\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/c\\\/PCMaticVideo\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed90798b38aa4ab74e12591da7ab21d5\",\"name\":\"Leo Notenboom\",\"description\":\"Leo A. Notenboom is the owner of Puget Sound Software, LLC and the Leo in Ask Leo!. Leo has been in the personal computer and software industry since 1979, as a software engineer, a manager of software engineers, and as a consultant. In 1983 Leo joined what was then a medium sized local company called Microsoft and spent the next 18 years in a wide variety of groups working on a wide variety of software. If you're running Microsoft Windows, if you've used a Microsoft development tool or Microsoft Money, or if you've ever purchased a ticket through Expedia, there's a good chance you've been touched by some of his work. And of course, since 2003, Leo has been answering your tech questions on Ask Leo!\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/ask-leo.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/leo\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ask Leo: Secure Delete - What is it and do I need it?","description":"By Leo Notenboom Although there are many software utilities that claim to be able to delete data files from hard drives securely and thoroughly, can't you accomplish the same thing simply by overwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive ones? To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I suppose that also depend on the level of sensitivity of your data. But you are correct in the implication that a plain old \"delete\" isn't nearly enough. Let's look at that, and how far you might need to go.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ask Leo: Secure Delete - What is it and do I need it?","og_description":"By Leo Notenboom Although there are many software utilities that claim to be able to delete data files from hard drives securely and thoroughly, can't you accomplish the same thing simply by overwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive ones? To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I suppose that also depend on the level of sensitivity of your data. But you are correct in the implication that a plain old \"delete\" isn't nearly enough. Let's look at that, and how far you might need to go.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/","og_site_name":"PC Matic Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic","article_published_time":"2009-11-18T22:02:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Leo Notenboom","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pcmatic","twitter_site":"@pcmatic","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Leo Notenboom","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/"},"author":{"name":"Leo Notenboom","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ed90798b38aa4ab74e12591da7ab21d5"},"headline":"Ask Leo: Secure Delete – What is it and do I need it?","datePublished":"2009-11-18T22:02:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/"},"wordCount":538,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png","keywords":["apartment","casual observer","Disk","hard disks","Kind","magnetic material","sensitive files","software","Windows","windows explorer"],"articleSection":["leo notenboom"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/","name":"Ask Leo: Secure Delete - What is it and do I need it?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png","datePublished":"2009-11-18T22:02:12+00:00","description":"By Leo Notenboom Although there are many software utilities that claim to be able to delete data files from hard drives securely and thoroughly, can't you accomplish the same thing simply by overwriting sensitive files with large, non-sensitive ones? To be honest, it depends on your level of paranoia. I suppose that also depend on the level of sensitivity of your data. But you are correct in the implication that a plain old \"delete\" isn't nearly enough. Let's look at that, and how far you might need to go.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pcmatic-fallback.png","width":1920,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ask-leo-secure-delete-what-is-it-and-do-i-need-it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ask Leo: Secure Delete – What is it and do I need it?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/","name":"PC Matic Blog","description":"Tech Tips and Tricks","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA.","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png","width":1535,"height":483,"caption":"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA."},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic","https:\/\/x.com\/pcmatic","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pcmaticusa\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/pcmatic","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/PCMaticVideo"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ed90798b38aa4ab74e12591da7ab21d5","name":"Leo Notenboom","description":"Leo A. Notenboom is the owner of Puget Sound Software, LLC and the Leo in Ask Leo!. Leo has been in the personal computer and software industry since 1979, as a software engineer, a manager of software engineers, and as a consultant. In 1983 Leo joined what was then a medium sized local company called Microsoft and spent the next 18 years in a wide variety of groups working on a wide variety of software. If you're running Microsoft Windows, if you've used a Microsoft development tool or Microsoft Money, or if you've ever purchased a ticket through Expedia, there's a good chance you've been touched by some of his work. And of course, since 2003, Leo has been answering your tech questions on Ask Leo!","sameAs":["http:\/\/ask-leo.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/author\/leo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}