"interesting thing to note - a .txt file with a few words made by notepad is ~1Kb, the same few words in word, save as .txt is ~32Kb!"

That's because Word saves all the style information as well (waves hands) templates, user preferences and stuff. If however you save your few words as a .txt file. it should be ~1kb, although NTFS has such a thing as alternate data streams, whereby metadata can be hidden stored as a hidden component of .txt files (or indeed any file), but I'm not a technical person so don't hit me. I think the bottom line is that if you don't want someone to read something, don't write it. Try not to think it.