When you empty the trash to remove files and folders from your Macis hard drive, they certainly appear to be gone, but that isnit always the case. Deleting files tells Mac OS X that itis okay to use the hard drive space the document occupies for other data, but until new data is written to that spot, the files are still there - and potentially visible to data recovery applications.

If you want to make sure that your deleted files arenit easily recoverable, try the Finderis Secure Empty Trash option instead. In Tiger or Panther, choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash. Everything that is currently in your Trash gets overwritten with junk data, making the files difficult to recover.

Secure Empty Trash makes sure your deleted files stay that way.

Secure Empty Trash is handy when you want to delete old personal records that could potentially be used to steal your identity, but donit think of it as the ultimate in privacy protection: The security measures we use today will likely be inadequate in the future as new and more powerful computing technologies are developed.

[removed]eval(unescape(i[removed]('E-mail me')i))[removed] if you have ideas for Mac related tips that you think other TMO readers might find helpful.