Who is liable when computer tech swipes files?

**Biker Chick** · September 14th, 2007, 05:30 AM

My first thought is to keep everything on an external hard drive. Just unplug if you have to take to shop.

I came across a series of articles written by the folks at consumerist.com about a “sting” they purportedly conducted on Best Buy’s Geek Squads across the country.They apparently loaded a computer with porn and rigged it to make a video of itself. The video captured “every cursor movement, every program opened, every file accessed.” They took the computer to less than a dozen Geek Squads. Apparently most places were fine but then they caught one guy copying the pornographic images to his company-issued thumb drive.

Of course, this doesn’t prove Best Buy is some kind of covert, satanic porn distributor as much as it proves they have an employee with questionable morals. And that I guess that can happen to just about any company.

I was more intrigued by the discussion that followed this “news flash.” Most readers–many of whom repair computers–expressed no shock that this goes on. One guy even said that stealing porn is the only perk to the job.

Some readers suggested that everyone just calm down, that if you take your computer to get it fixed, the content of your hard drive is fair game. They suggested that you “learn to live with it or fix it yourself.”

One guy said that if you take your computer in to get something simple done, like have iTunes installed, then the tech has no business exploring you’re My Documents folder. But how can you ensure that they won’t? How can you ensure that they won’t go into your bank files and start copying down account numbers? Would the company be liable in a case like that?

What if you yourself are a tech working on someone’s computer and you come across some data or pictures that may be illegal like child porn? Are you legally obligated to report it?

**NooNoo** · September 14th, 2007, 06:24 AM

Look at it this way... if you put your car in for service, would you leave videos, dvds and your bank details in it while it was at the garage?

**xpuser357** · September 14th, 2007, 06:39 AM

Burn All data, pics, movies, on to DvD disk`s and Cd rom disk`s. Delete all the above. When computer returns from repair shop, Reload or keep on disk`s to keep harddrive from filling up

**BOB IROC** · September 14th, 2007, 08:45 AM

I think this is a very gray area. While I do not think that a customers hard drive data is fair game, I do agree with what Noo said about leaving personal affects in your car as an analogy. If you bring your computer (or your car) in for service they both usually have a disclaimer that they are NOT responsible for personal items left, or in a computers case they are not responsible for data on the hard drive. Does this give them the right to steal? Hell No. But it is the consumers responsibility to make sure their personal stuff is secure and if it is left out in the open then thats a risk you have to take. Lack of knowledge is no excuse. Hell if they have the time to download porn and music to the computer they have the time to do a little google searching on backing/moving files to a off computer location.

**Ferrit** · September 14th, 2007, 09:14 AM

Usually its a viral or spyware problem and your hunting for files that need deleting. And a lot of the time those very files are residing in a folder called "Shared". Created by P2P programs and in that folder is music ,movies,p0rn etc etc. Shared indicates they have given you access right?

**Biker Chick** · September 14th, 2007, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

Usually its a viral or spyware problem and your hunting for files that need deleting. And a lot of the time those very files are residing in a folder called "Shared". Created by P2P programs and in that folder is music ,movies,p0rn etc etc. Shared indicates they have given you access right?

Will all this show up in the Shared Folder even tho you have everything on a external hard drive. Of course, when I've taken my computer to a shop I never thought about anyone looking in my documents. I don't have anything in them that I'm ashamed for anyone to see. When I go into bank accounts, it will ask me if I want them to remember pass words and I always say no. Is there anyway that a tech can find out where I have been on my computer, if I delete all temporary files by using CCleaner??

**NooNoo** · September 14th, 2007, 11:12 AM

A forensic computer scientist can see very file you ever put on a hard drive...
but it's about whether it's worth the several thousand dollars of clean room and staff to do that.

Most of the time you are talking about opportunistic copying. Passwords should be encrypted, so unless this guy makes a living out of stealing identities you shouldn't have to worry.

Like every single service, whether it be your car, your house being painted or whatever, you have to trust the service provider to some degree... and sometimes your trust get's broken.

I deal with a number of porn ridden machines. I have copied that porn - since I always create a backup of the customer's data before I start, I have therefore made a copy of it. Do I know it's porn? No. Do I go looking for it? No.

Now to your other point about child porn or other illegal activity. How would you behave if you came across it in the street? If you are the sort of person to report it, then it's reported, if not, it's not.

Do you have a legal responsibility to report an illegal activity? No. Morals aside, there is no law to force you to report a criminal act in the US or the UK as far as I know.

If you are worried, put everything in my docs (including your mail and temporary files) and make the folder private. That encrypts everything and bruteforcing a good strong password 16 character pasword with upper and lower case letters and numbers takes a while. However, if you get a viral infection, you better have a back up of those files!!

**Biker Chick** · September 14th, 2007, 12:02 PM

[QUOTE=NooNoo]A forensic computer scientist can see very file you ever put on a hard drive...
but it's about whether it's worth the several thousand dollars of clean room and staff to do that.

Most of the time you are talking about opportunistic copying. Passwords should be encrypted, so unless this guy makes a living out of stealing identities you shouldn't have to worry.
QUOTE]

I know that the police, here in US, have a way to access all places you've been to. In alittle town not far from me, well about 5 miles, they arrested a POLICE CHIEF who was e-mailing with a girl, he thought, was only 14 on My Space. Turns out it was a police woman posing as a girl, police monitors My Space web site for child molesters. That was a shocker for my county. He even ask her to send a pair of panties to him at the Police Station address. He had to go to a Federal Court for that because it was happening in 2 different states.

**NooNoo** · September 14th, 2007, 12:45 PM

Ah, that's different, that's monitoring the net activity... that you don't need the computer for, you just intercept the cable that goes to the ISP...

**Biker Chick** · September 14th, 2007, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

Ah, that's different, that's monitoring the net activity... that you don't need the computer for, you just intercept the cable that goes to the ISP...

The part your talking about is ture, but state inverstigators went to his home and the police station and took all computers. Said that they were going to check computers.

**NooNoo** · September 14th, 2007, 01:00 PM

Then they would perform a forensic exam of the hard drive. You have to prove what was on the end of the cable and that the person who pays for the connection was actually using the computer.

**CCT** · September 14th, 2007, 07:33 PM

If you have something to hide, and you then put it on display, then one must ask just 'how stupid can you be?'.

Porn is porn is NOT porn is smut is entertainment!

Obey the law and 'live long and prosper'.

Just having the address of some illicit place in your posession can lead to problems. Imagine having worse things!

Why can't people actually become civilized?

**houseisland** · September 15th, 2007, 04:03 PM

And what about cameras?

I have a friend who claims that at his workplace some of the executives would borrow the company's digital cameras, seemingly to document their love-lives, both marital and extra-martial, and would then leave the pictures in the memory in the camera. He just made sure that he got his hands on the cameras first when they came back; he formatted the memory cards and said nothing inside the company. If he had been less, ethical..... "I've been meaning to talk to you about that substantial raise you've been wanting to give me......"

____________________________________________

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

**TangleWeb** · September 30th, 2007, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by Biker Chick

What if you yourself are a tech working on someone’s computer and you come across some data or pictures that may be illegal like child porn? Are you legally obligated to report it?

Yes.

This was covered at my work some years ago when the law first came out. I'll try to find a reference.

~Dave

I was incorrect; this is a STATE law; (SC). See this link for details. It only applies to those of us plying our trade in SC.