What happens to information?

[Excited Penguin]

Say we're talking about this forum. Where does all the data go after it's deleted(I heard it gets deleted). 

I'm just curious. Is it lost forever or is it recoverable?

But more importantly how good are we in that department? Do we save information in this technological age, for future generations to study and how much of it do we save? Are there organizations keeping track or anyone at all for that matter?

Tell me whatever you know, however vaguely related to the subject. It sounds like an interesting topic.

[Alex K]

I think the information goes into hiding. By irreversibly deleting bits on your computer, you have to produce heat exchange, the entropy rises and that is a sign that the information you once had is now part of the statistical thermal noise and not recoverable any more by macroscopic measurements.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

When you delete something from your computer it isn't instantly "deleted" per se.
The particular address space of the data just cannot be accessed.
When new data needs to be stored,it may or may not be stored in the previously deleted data's address space.
If the new data is stored in the old data's address space,the bits present previously is overwritten with the new data.

The deleted information doesn't exactly go somewhere neither does anything magical happen,it just gets replaced and erased.Forever.

[Napoléon]

Aye, if you really want that weird porn you deleted to be gone, just clog up your computer with shit to make sure it's overwritten after you emptied it from the recycle bin...

[GrandizerII]

Aye, if you really want that weird porn you deleted to be gone, just clog up your computer with shit to make sure it's overwritten after you emptied it from the recycle bin...

Or use a program that has a wiper feature.

[Napoléon]

Or use a program that has a wiper feature.

Which does diddly squat.

[GrandizerII]

Or use a program that has a wiper feature.

Which does diddly squat.

You sure about that?

CCleaner's Drive Wiper feature does not override deleted data?

[Napoléon]

CCleaner's Drive Wiper feature does not override deleted data?

I use CCleaner too, I'm still skeptical whether the info is actually gone. I've used recovery systems that have recovered stuff from my drive even after CCleaner has supposedly wiped it. Besides, if it really did they wouldn't suggest you do multiple passes when you wipe a drive, otherwise you'd only have to do it once.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

The only way to truly "erase" data instantly would be to replace the address space of the data that is being deleted with a seemingly senseless collection of bits simultaneously whilst deletion.
But that would pave way to even move complications and inefficiencies.

Consider this set of bits:
1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

Now imagine that you want to delete these bolded bits:
1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

Typically,to delete those bits the bits would have to be "shifted" like this:

#1 : 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
#2:  1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0
#3:  1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0

As you can see,the previous data has been replaced with even more data,in a particularly inefficient manner which would take a relatively considerable amount of time for huge size's of data,even for 1 or 2 gigabytes of data.So technically speaking,your computer wouldn't be able to free space when you delete something because that particular data would have to be replaced with unrelated bits to actually delete the data.Hence the reason why OS's follow the current method.
I don't know how programs like CCleaner operate but i would never trust them completely.

[Aoi Magi]

I thought they went to digimon land..
Or whatever the FBI calls their surveillance program