It seems that an advocacy group called The Basel Action Network purchased the hard drive along with several others in a Nigerian market to see what data was still on them. One of the files was a 2001 document with the names of several dozen children and parents in the Wisconsin program along with their location and some billing information. It also contained the resume of a former Health and Family Services employee.

Apparently the group was trying to call attention to a related issue, the dumping of potentially toxic electronics from Wisconsin and the rest of the country in poor nations like Nigeria.

A related article notes that an upcoming event will give Madison residents a chance to unload their electronics without worries about private data being compromised or their computer ending up being burned in a Third World dump. Cascade Asset Management of Madison, which runs the Computer Recycling Round-up held Nov. 12, completely erases or destroys the hard drives it receives, said Sarah Blaser, who handles environmental health and safety for the company.