what other format could be used instead of PDF? JPEG maybe? a copier already has everything built in to scan and digitize a document. and now they have somewhere to store those documents.
the hdd might not even be in a conventional format.
I was beeing sarcastic with that 'saving' But make no mistake, that's the reason for this, so they can have all the data available in case of some 'terrorist plot'..
wierd, i heard something like this from radio few weeks ago. That people have digged out some old photocopiers and found there data that not everyone should see, by data they did easely sure where was it from (somekind of police department narcotics district or sth, hospitals...etc...) it was a pretty long story, i heard only few minutes so i don't know the entire story, but yeh....it is a bit scary though.