I’m no attorney either, but what is probably a frightening precedent for this is the case of Paris Hilton, who had the contents of her storage unit confiscated when someone neglected to pay the bill:

A couple of porn purveyors [have] posted a treasure trove of her most embarrassing personal items – including sleazy sex tapes, topless photos, love letters, medical records and even hundreds of celebrity cellphone numbers.

Hilton had kept all of the material in a storage locker when she moved from one Los Angeles mansion to another in 2004.

When she failed to pay a measly $208 storage bill, the goods were sold to an unidentified buyer – and then obtained by "Sultan of Sleaze" David Hans Schmitt and broker Bardia Persa.

The duo launched the site – parisexposed.com – yesterday, charging $39.97 a month for access.

Paris was obviously a pack rat – saving all sorts of things. Among the random items:

* Prescription bottles for Hydrocodone, a painkiller similar to OxyContin used to manage anxiety disorders, post-party sleep aid Ambien and the herpes medication Valtrex.

* A medical bill from a Los Angeles clinic, billing an "Amber Taylor" – with the same birth date as Paris – for a miscarriage in March 2003.

* A journal analyzing her booze-fueled dreams.

* Her reality TV co-star Nicole Richie’s University of Arizona ID card.

* Sister Nicky’s Nevada marriage certificate.

* Several bank statements, including one with an ending monthly balance of just $9.26.

* Home videos she shot of visits with her sick grandmother.

* To-do lists that include an assortment of errands, including a reminder to buy Christmas gifts.

I doubt the personal records of the rest of us are any safer.

This is pretty interesting, I’d also like to know the answer. Something tells me that we’ll all be experts on the details of these cases over the next few years, though…

and the landlord has no direct agreement of fiduciary responsibility or confidentiality to the people those folders, drives and files represent…

could they gather the info, market it for what it is, and sell it on the “open market” to whoever the highest bidder is?

It’s always messiest right after the big party ends, isn’t it?!?

That’s a great question- not only for the drives, but the files that are left as well. I was told in the case of Golden Gate Mortgage- the files were left on the desks when the auction house came in.

It’s my understanding that if the rent isn’t paid and the tenant is locked out, the contents are forfeited and the landlord may dispose of the contents to pay the bills- so does that leave the mortgage company off the hook? Besides, if the case where the company is defunct, there’s not much you can do to them at that point.

So does that make the landlord and/or auction house responsible for this data? I’d love to have someone tell us.

Maybe the right question would be “who is liable for the information on the drives?”. The fear of a massive class-action lawsuit would fix this, but does anybody know who is responsible?

I’ve got your May 18th post on the sidebar and you’ll find a comment there. Obviously, we need to talk.

I wrote some more about it here on my blog.