Privacy and Customers Hardrives

[repoman]

I was wondering people's options on this matter, as l am a tech in a Furniture Shop which sells computers and also does rent to own. We have about 600 machines on rent to own. The computer is still the store's property till they are done payments. I was wondering if and when a customer brings a computer in for service and l have to surf around on their harddrive for problems and l was to come across illegal stuff, is their privacy concerns. What do you think?
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[Damned Angel]

very sticky subject.

we have a disclaimer at our storethat says we are not responsible for lost data (read: your hard drive has bad sectors and I will be unable to save anything more than the few documents you have on there)

For your situation, I would ask your managment about store policies.

[WesFlash]

Hate to say this, but talk to a layer because that's what they get paid for. Along the way, a lawyer will probably have you add a disclaimer about damage and one for when they rent it stating that the owners and employees of "your store" have the right to view and/ or copy any and all content off of any computer. The smart ones will know that you are potentially gathering evidence that could be used against them. The lawyers will also outline the liability for the store if a customer does bad things with the computers.
This is really a good question, but it requires a lawyer to provide the best answer.

[ShadowKing]

When I work on a computer, I will not service any software that they cannot produce a CD for. If its on there and working, I don't mess with it, but if they want help with it I ask for the CD.

As far as really illegal stuff or porn, if I find it, I inform the customer that I will be unable to service their computer with whatever it is that is on it.

I prefer not to open the my documents folder, and avoid snooping when possible.

[Stalemate]

I must admit that if I found illegal material (read: kiddy porn) that I would immediately report it. There's no valide reason for being in possession of such material regardless of free speech. The father in me would have to breathe deeply and relax instead of taking matters in my own hands.

As for pirated software, I would never support it professionally. My reputation is worth more than that.

Still a lawyer would be in a better position to inform you of your obligations towards your client (you may still own the hard drive, but not the information on it.) and towards the law in your area.

[Geek #1]

If you all remember the Gary Glitter case a few years back, this is exactly what happened to him.

He took his PC back to PC World for repairs and the tech found tons of child porn on the hard disk. Now should the tech be looking there? If the material was in the root directory on in a folder called "porn" for example it wouldn't be hard to miss.

However, I think the the tech was looking around the PC with it belonging to someone famous.

OK, I'm against Child porn as much as the next person, even so those files were private (though they were illegal), but I would have done exactly the same thing.

The defence argued that the Tech had no right to look there, being that the fix to the problem had not called for it. Which I have to agree with, however if you have illegal materials (be it pirate software or pornography) then you haven't a leg to stand on really.

[ßracius]

I don't know about that one. On one hand it's private information, but on the other hand the end user doesn't own that computer. Kinda like using my work computer and the admin looking on it to see if I have child porn. If I had to choose I would have to say that the computer is still under the ownership of your company and any data that is stored on the hard drive is subject to review.

[amcfreek]

i gotta put my 2cents here on this one
a freind called me up with i have a freinds computer here i think it has a virus on it
so i checked it out , nice virus .
so i went to work on this it was a nice one
if they would have made this into a screen saver they could have charged $$ ..it did some cool stuff, any way i had to use some brute force to get the script from runnning and said lets see if i can find it , ok wich vbe extention is it so i went well lets see if they used the jpg.vbe deal well just search for the jpg,, out pops a bunch of under agers nothing really grose just a coulpe of poses for the camara , right after this search gets done running the older brother walks in with there where did you find them?
they were placed about 15 folders out of the root directory ,, his kid brother thought he was smart ,, any way my moms going to kill him, a good question here is the girls were all his age like 13 they emailed him there pix???mom saw em kid got beet jpg deleted
mom searches for jpgs now , i told this to a freind he said we had a stripper in last week with a ton of her on the hard drive
we couldent help but to look , i think they had trouble looking her in the eye without laughing..
this next 1 is only my opinion of what could happen and depending how explicit the material is depends on the amount of accidents waiting to happen !
any way the prison system usually steps in where the law steps out....
i think calling the person up and say come on over after closing time to pick youre kiddy porn i mean youre computer up then report an accident prone burglar,
and after the police arrive just explain we found kiddy porn on his computer and said we were going to delete it and he came to steel it back after hours ,,
just a thought he really should get a date with bubba ,, same cell and all,,,
i know you really shouldent help some one
who is accident prone that would be bad,,,,

[IronTech]

We had an instance of this when I worked at Best Buy. Had a kid bring back a system with a CD-RW saying we didn't install it right because the CD's he burned didn't work. Turns out he was trying to burn a Playstation CD, and those who know the business know what you need to use burned PSX games. Obviously he did not. We gave him the choice of leaving with the computer and not coming back, or we'd call Sony. Best Buys are Sony dealers so we were between a rock and a hard place. Another time, a guy begged us, then bribbed us with $20 to save his porn when his computer crashed. It was all legal of course...we all got a good laugh and a nice bonus for that one.

[Kyr0n]

That Depends. There are 2 things you can do.

1.)In the case of pretty much everything but kiddie porn, ie:Pirated software, let them have it, and don't be a narc. It is not your concern, nor will it make any difference for yourself or your company in the long run.

2.)If it's kiddie porn, then pick up the phone, and call the police.


P.S Notice i said PRETTY MUCH everything but kiddie porn, use your judgement.

[Terrence]

I would have to say that i agree with most of the above statements, I work in an office store which sells computers, and I am the Tech, and consequently the only one who knows anything about computers. I think the idea of a disclaimer is a good idea, and privacy has a major role in that. And i dont think that a tech should go snooping around, but target the main problem, which most of the time is hardware related, unless there is a virus or something. BUT I think that if I came across child porn on any system brought in, that there would be no hesitation of calling the authorities. It's just wrong. Professionally, i do not encourage piracy of software or games, but I don't think that its as bad as child porn.

[sdrawkcab]

If there is a contract tht states specifically that the shop still owns the computer, then I wouldn't feel bad at all about removing anything offensive from the computer, as since it's YOUR computer, it may be YOUR liability at some point.

In my business, where we sell about 80% of our computers AS IS (used) I don't really think it's any of my business. I don't look through the customer's stuff, but we do have underage kids that work in the shop from time to time (we train young techs sometimes and we also have kids that paint, mow grass, etc.) then if they have adult-related wallpaper or screen saver it is removed and we give the customer ONE warning that this is not acceptable. After that, they will no longer be welcome in the shop if they continue to put adult material in view of youngsters.

Warez, I could care less about. If someone wants to try Microsoft's patience, I applaud them, but I don't know them if they get caught <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0"> I would probably say something if someone was copying our restore CDs for their friends though, especially since they automatically load our company logo and contact info.

I actually had a customer come in SEVERAL TIMES and want his computer repaired, and each time he had TONS of kiddie porn and such stored all over the hard drive, like it wasn't a big deal. This guy was mildly retarded, and he was a guy I liked a lot, so I gave him several chances to get rid of it and never bring it back. He wasn't smart enough to take my advice, so I called the cops, and never heard from him since, I don't know what happened to him.

[Spork]

When I worked at CompUSA, I really didn't care about legalities involving what people had on their computers. Now if it was morally wrong (kiddie porn, etc) then we would take the proper course of actions towards this. But if I noticed that the customer had pirated software, thousands of MP3s, or any other illegal software, I wouldn't care. In fact, if he had the copies with him, I'd even be tempted to make my own. <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0">

[repoman]

Thanks for all your replys. In concern to pirated software, we would have no customers in that case. BUt l have been surveying people about the Kiddie porn and because the computer stills belongs to us, l don't see a problem surfing the drive and reporting it to police. I don't normally surf harddrive but if l see something funny, than happy surfing! <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

[Fubarian]

We support 0 pirated software (what if the guy pulls out a badge and says blah blah blah?). We've seen loads, I mean TONS (over 3000 pics and 20gigs of videos) of porn on a pc, but no kiddie stuff as of yet....this usually is found after we go to test their net connection and we see "hot sex software" as one of the dial-up connections <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> but we don't go lookin thought documents looking for stuff...

and besides, if the thumbnails are on, and they're sittin in "my documents" when they want things xfered over to a new HD, thats their own dumb fault <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">