To put this article in context, they did resort to using specialised software to recover data.
In which case, I am surprised the percentages were not higher i.e. only 1% contained enough data for identity theft and I suspect that was a business hard disc.
However, I take your point that users should remove data before disposing of a hard drive and I would also use DBan.
I suspect many computer users still believe formatting a drive removes does this........it doesn't.
exo