"deleting a file erases it"

IT supportsecurityprivacy

Delete removes the directory entry and marks the space reusable - the bytes remain until overwritten, which recovery tools exploit daily.

NIST SP 800-88 defines the real spectrum: clear, purge, destroy. SSDs complicate it further - wear leveling scatters copies, so encryption-plus-key-destruction became the practical purge.

Disputed / commonly mistold A popular version of this story is inaccurate - see the note above.

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