The UK's Information Commissioner's Office purchased devices from auction sites such as eBay and computer fairs and out of the 200 hard drives collected 11% contained personal information.
The watchdog also stated that at least 2 of the hard drives had enough information on them to enable someone to steal the former owners' identity.
For its investigation, the ICO employed computer forensic firm NCC Group to source and scour around 200 hard drives, 20 memory sticks and 10 mobile phones and nearly half (48%) contained some information, 11% of which was deemed personal information. Among the 34,000 files found were scanned bank statements, passports, information on previous driving offences and some medical details.
Four of the hard drives came from organisations rather than individuals and contained information about employees and clients, including health and financial details. All four organisations had been contacted, and had subsequently taken action to securely erase data on old equipment, the ICO said.
One - Safe and Secure Insurances Services Limited - has agreed to introduce further improvements.
"People are in danger of becoming a soft touch for online fraudsters," warned Mr Graham.
"Many people will presume that pressing the delete button on a computer file means that it is gone forever. However this information can easily be recovered."
Also part of the survey carried out was focused around the disposal of mobile phones, computers and laptops and found that 1 in 10 people had not wiped the device of data. Mobile phone data could include phone numbers, bank details, online account details and media such as personal pictures and videos.
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