HousingDoom has asked this question before, and we’re going to keep on asking it- WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DATA ON THE COMPUTERS OF DEFUNCT LENDERS?

Yesterday the following notice appeared in the Arizona Republic.  The property of the now defunct Eagle First Mortgage is being auctioned off:[no link available, hat tip L!]

NOTICE OF PUBLIC AUCTION: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 @ 10:00am at: 5060 N. 19th Avenue, Suite 101, Phoenix, Arizona. Preview at 9:00am. The following property (miscellaneous office furniture & equipment) belonging to Eagle First Mortgage will be sold at public auction to satisfy liens per A.R.S. 33-361 (D) to pay for delinquent rents, taxes and late fees. Cash or Certified Funds Only. Pub: May 27, June 3, 10, 2007

Doom was previously informed that in the case of the auction of Golden Gate Mortgage’s office equipment, the computer disks were NOT wiped prior to being auctioned off.   Yesterday’s notice does not indicate who is holding the auction for Eagle First, so we are unable to determine if there are any computers in this sale, or if they will be wiped.  It appears likely though, that there is the potential of personal financial information falling into the wrong hands.

Given the highly sensitive information on the computers of mortgage lenders, does it really make sense to auction  them off with the data still intact? Implode-o-meter now lists 76 lenders that are no longer doing business, which represent heaven only knows how many branch offices with all their respective computers. That could represent a lot of opportunites for the misuse of data.

I for one have no idea how much personal information is kept on these computers, or for how long after a loan is made that the information is kept.  It seems though that these are the kinds of questions that consumers should be asking BEFORE data is misappropriated, rather than after.