Geek Squad Caught Stealing Porn

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Rich Tate

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The Consumerist caught a Geek Squad employee red handed stealing adult entertainment from a customer’s machine. Apparently this problem is actually a frequent occurrence.

This is not just an isolated incident, according to reports from Geek Squad insiders alleging that Geek Squad techs are stealing porn, images, and music from customer's computers in California, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere. Our sources say that some Geek Squad locations have a common computer set up where everyone dumps their plunder to share with the other technicians.
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Ok... if you have the thankless job of being a retail technician... shouldn't this be considered a god-given right?!

We've all done it that have worked on computers for folks.
 
It's actually very disturbing from a privacy standpoint. I think they should be fired for rooting around people's hard drive. They might be just copying porn, but you have to wonder what else they root through also. I'd feel violated if that happened to me.
 
This shouldn't surprise anyone. I've never worked for geeksquad, but I'll poke around someone's computer while waiting for a virus scan to complete or something too. People should understand that when they hand over their computer, anything that's on there is pretty much fair game. I just don't understand why people would expect anything less.
 
UrielDagda said:
It's actually very disturbing from a privacy standpoint. I think they should be fired for rooting around people's hard drive. They might be just copying porn, but you have to wonder what else they root through also. I'd feel violated if that happened to me.
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You're kidding, right? I worked for CompUSA for 8 years and I can tell you that this was quite common. If you don't want others looking through your files, don't give them your computer. Now my techs didn't really go looking for the porn all to often in my store. They would, however, do a complete data back-up of the user data so that they could do a data transfer or restore data after the system had to be wiped. In the process of copying data over they would watch the names of the files on the screen. If they came across files named "double anal" or "donkey show" they would look at the images afterward. I am actually glad that they looked at the images. My store caught ten people who had child porn on their machines. We turned those people over to the FBI. As for the music, most of the stuff found at my store was in directories named "Limewire" or "eMule", you do the math on that one.
 
I blame the dumb customers for braking their PC's with virus ridden porn and music in the first place... Dumb-Asses....Period...
 
UrielDagda said:
It's actually very disturbing from a privacy standpoint. I think they should be fired for rooting around people's hard drive. They might be just copying porn, but you have to wonder what else they root through also. I'd feel violated if that happened to me.
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If you dumb enough to not know how to fix a computer I think this sort of stuff is ok. C: surfing is ok. If they uploaded a virus that would be bad yes.
 
AdamNesvick said:
Ok... if you have the thankless job of being a retail technician... shouldn't this be considered a god-given right?!

We've all done it that have worked on computers for folks.
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QFT, pertaining comment next ....


UrielDagda said:
It's actually very disturbing from a privacy standpoint. I think they should be fired for rooting around people's hard drive. They might be just copying porn, but you have to wonder what else they root through also. I'd feel violated if that happened to me.
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Perhaps they should learn how to use a computer properly and not engage in so much porn it causes spyware infestation. On the other hand, if hardware fails or whatever the case may be, the rule still stands in a viewpoint ..... that's like telling a mechanic to cover his eyes when he ONLY needs to fix the timing on the timing chain. Do you really expect a mechanic that's 100% honest? I get screwed everytime I go no matter where I go.

I understand the moral issue you're addressing, but come on, after thinking about mechanics you know it's going to happen.

On a very interesting point, we have caught child pornography distributors and reported them to the police on a few occassions to help better our community simply by noticing the obvious folder names and whatnot. You can't argue with that.

I'll be glad I was suspicious when I have kids. It's kind of like Bush's telephone tapping ordeal, only his is much more unworthy, less efficient, and overall not for it's original intentions.
 
piako said:
If you dumb enough to not know how to fix a computer I think this sort of stuff is ok. C: surfing is ok. If they uploaded a virus that would be bad yes.
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Your right everyone should waste most of their time on the computer and not do other things in life :rolleyes:
 
MadJuggla9 said:
On the other hand, if hardware fails or whatever the case may be, the rule still stands in a viewpoint ..... that's like telling a mechanic to cover his eyes when he ONLY needs to fix the timing on the timing chain. Do you really expect a mechanic that's 100% honest? I get screwed everytime I go no matter where I go.

I understand the moral issue you're addressing, but come on, after thinking about mechanics you know it's going to happen.

On a very interesting point, we have caught child pornography distributors and reported them to the police on a few occassions to help better our community simply by noticing the obvious folder names and whatnot. You can't argue with that.

I'll be glad I was suspicious when I have kids. It's kind of like Bush's telephone tapping ordeal, only his is much more unworthy, less efficient, and overall not for it's original intentions.
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But that's still like saying if somebody's air conditioning broke in thier bedroom, it would be perfectly okay for the technician to rifle through somebody's closet and drawers, under their bed and shit. Would you accept a mechanic going though your glove compartment, rooting around for anything interesting?

The child porn thing just irks me, because we in this country have been pretty much content to give up any and all civil rights, just as long as it helps catch somebody with child porn! But that's not even the issue I am talking about here, it's just the fact of having somebody root around another person's private information. A hard drive isn't like putting something on the internet. There is an expectation of privacy, and that shouldn't be dictated by how much somebody knows about computers. What about people who make a living doing creative work on their computers? Some technician rooting around and taking stuff sees a novel, or screenplay or something else and decides to take it, and winds up screwing up a person's source on income? If it's not acceptable for that, it just isn't acceptable, period.

Keep out of people's private stuff ffs. Personally after reading something like this, and seeing the replies, if my hard drive goes I would be more likely to just shred it and buy a new one before I let a tech touch it. Glad I backup stuff once in a while. I'd rather just restore from a backup than have somebody rooting around my journals, novels, etc. Fuck that.
 
I'd be amazed if there is a retail tech who hasn't done a little porn spelunking. It is one of the perks of an otherwise shitty job. That said, we didn't make copies of anything we found and I wouldn't say anything that might identify the owner/participants. Lemme tell you though, that sometimes left you feeling REAAALLY awkward when handing back the customers machine. Oh, and we never, EVER looked around the machine that belonged to the 6' 5" 40-something crossdresser who seemed to have a crush on the store manager. Some things, you just don't want to know.
 
wow, a real dumbass parade in this thread. When you call in a plumber to fix your toilet, I'm sure you have no problem with him going into your drawers sniffing your wife's panties either.
 
piako said:
Sure, in your home.
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But not in your Personal Computer, right. :rolleyes:

Although i'm not really too moved by this story--primarily because i seriously doubt i'd ever be in the shoes of the victim in this sort of scenario--i think it's unacceptable for a technician to, not only view but, steal files from areas on ones' hard drive they're not even supposed to access. I mean, they've been given a job to do which the customer expects them to do, nothing more, nothing less--OK, maybe if the technician was to do something nice (say, rearrange ones' desktop icons :rolleyes: ); but this would be an exception.

Yes, some might expect these sort of technicians to do things they just shouldn't do but, i'm betting, if the majority of their customers knew about the things they get up to on their computers, they'd lose a lot of their business.
 
mzs_biteme said:
I blame the dumb customers for braking their PC's with virus ridden porn and music in the first place... Dumb-Asses....Period...
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Raptor_007 said:
This shouldn't surprise anyone. I've never worked for geeksquad, but I'll poke around someone's computer while waiting for a virus scan to complete or something too. People should understand that when they hand over their computer, anything that's on there is pretty much fair game. I just don't understand why people would expect anything less.
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I'm amazed at the attitude expressed by people like mzs_biteme and Raptor_007. What if your doctor, financial advisor, insurance agent, financial advisor, or accountant had the same attitude? People who seek out professional help expect just that--professionals, who don't go snooping or copying data around.
 
When I use a friends computer I dont go looking around for shit, I dont even look at the bookmarks, I just do what I went on it to do. I dont want my friends or anybody else using my computer to look around for shit either. If I want to kick back and watch a Harry Potter movie or listen to some Madonna then thats my business goddamnit. I sure as hell dont want some pervert from Compusa doing it, and if I caught him taking stuff from my computer, especially things like webcam pictures (since everyone I know with a webcam has a little archive of movies/pictures) or other personal stuff then I would definately sue their asses and take it to the media.
 
I'd be far more worried about someone going through financial accounts with passwords saved in people's browsers than rifling through their porn stash.

And anyone who hands over a computer with naked photos of themselves on it is just dumb. That's like turning in a roll of film to be processed that's nothing but nude photos of yourself. Most normal people would be too embarrassed.
 
Technoob said:
wow, a real dumbass parade in this thread. When you call in a plumber to fix your toilet, I'm sure you have no problem with him going into your drawers sniffing your wife's panties either.
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To complete your comparison though.....they did not call they plumber....they took their toilet to the plumber and also have thim a box full of pron......hey, dont look in that pron box while you are fixing my toilet....ok?
 
And if you accidentally leave a computer vulnerable to some exploit, and someone steals some [H] proprietary info, or review, or business info, I guess that's cool too...it was your fault...you left it "out there".
 
Meh... if I steal porn, I will share porn.

You can argue that it is a slippery slope, but it really isn't. Don't keep porn on your computer if you don't want people to find your porn stash.

And if you are afraid of someone stealing your financial information or intellectual property... TAKE IT OFF BEFORE YOU TAKE YOUR COMPUTER IN FOR SERVICE, or don't keep it on your HD if you don't do your own repair work.

You cannot expect part timers at a computer repair shop to act in a professional manner... because they aren't professionals. Expect them to act like part time high school workers... which they are. Invasion of privacy... riiiight, I somehow doubt they look all that hard.
 
TMan1876 said:
Meh... if I steal porn, I will share porn.

You can argue that it is a slippery slope, but it really isn't. Don't keep porn on your computer if you don't want people to find your porn stash.
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And when they steal all of your other info, get passwords, financial records, install keyloggers and trojans to wreak havoc with your money, and so on, I guess that's all peachy.

These responses are pretty pathetic. Death by lowered expectations.
 
Stealing Porn is completly different to stealing CC info.

Simple.
 
RoBo said:
Stealing Porn is completly different to stealing CC info.

Simple.
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A computer tech who is willing to steal is the issue. Some apparently can't get the underlying concept since in this case they only stole porn.

Just because most people reading this article are a bunch of Beavis's going hehehehehehe porn lol, doesn't mean that the larger implications should be missed.
 
I think the issue here is "stealing", not looking through the files on the computer.

Heck the "porn" could be personal home videos. Unknowingly people expect a level of trust when they use services like Geeksquad. Stealing content and sharing it on an internal network is hardly professional.
 
People can be seriously funny, do you really think that any young male(18 thru mid 20s) would not open that "private" folder you labeled "porn" on your desktop ?

Its akin to taking a bunch of , say, naked coeds to a dorm, walking them past all the guys in the dorm, putting them all in one room, then close the door turn around and say " dont go into this room" then leave, where exactly do you think the first place those guys are headed too ?

or another,

You just left the local porn shop, you place the couple of skin mags you just bought on the
passenger side seat and drive away, a few miles down the road, your car breaks down.
You call for a tow truck, a few minutes later it shows up and tows your car to the local mechanic, would you really leave that porn in the seat of your car ? no you pick it up, put it in a bag and keep it with you. Why ? because you don't want someone else to see it. and you know if you leave it there in plain sight someone will.

Grow up, if you don't want people to find and/or see your porn, keep it in a place where they cant.
 
'invi[tus said:
People can be seriously funny, do you really think that any young male(18 thru mid 20s) would not open that "private" folder you labeled "porn" on your desktop ?

Its akin to taking a bunch of , say, naked coeds to a dorm, walking them past all the guys in the dorm, putting them all in one room, then close the door turn around and say " dont go into this room" then leave, where exactly do you think the first place those guys are headed too ?

or another,

You just left the local porn shop, you place the couple of skin mags you just bought on the
passenger side seat and drive away, a few miles down the road, your car breaks down.
You call for a tow truck, a few minutes later it shows up and tows your car to the local mechanic, would you really leave that porn in the seat of your car ? no you pick it up, put it in a bag and keep it with you. Why ? because you don't want someone else to see it. and you know if you leave it there in plain sight someone will.

Grow up, if you don't want people to find and/or see your porn, keep it in a place where they cant.
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You're right, the ones who don't want people stealing things, and violating privacy are the ones who need to "grow up".
 
'invi[tus said:
You just left the local porn shop, you place the couple of skin mags you just bought on the
passenger side seat and drive away, a few miles down the road, your car breaks down.
You call for a tow truck, a few minutes later it shows up and tows your car to the local mechanic, would you really leave that porn in the seat of your car ? no you pick it up, put it in a bag and keep it with you. Why ? because you don't want someone else to see it. and you know if you leave it there in plain sight someone will.
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One major thing you overlook in this analogy is that, when I computer breaks, most people aren't in a position to be able to sort through and "pick up" stuff they don't want people to see on the hard drive, especially if it's something wrong with the operating system or something major like that which blocks the use of it.

You can't call somebody's personal computer data "plain sight" unless it's a computer used by a lot of people normally.

And I am willing to bet even if somebody managed to do that, there would be a bunch of techs scouring hard drive with undelete utilities still, saying the same things if they are caught.

This just reminds me of a local case where somebody got arrested for having child porn on their PC when they took it in to be repaired. After a month or so of sheer hell, it wound up being determined that the technician was the one that put it there. Boneheads like that are very rare, but it kinda makes one wish there was a set of rules for people who work as computer technicians, intead of some loose assumptions.
 
Call out the RIAA on them, since they are also stealing music. Lets see them sue Worst Buy.
 
I am sorry, but I really can't figure out the logic behind this supposed "professionalism" that is supposed to be taking place. If you didn't want someone else looking at it, you shouldn't leave it in a place they can find it in the first place. You shouldn't be granting ACCESS to them. You should be putting up WALLS around it.

The first thing I do when I bring my car to a mechanic, hell, even Oil Express to get a quick oil change (I'm sure some of you will shudder at that but hey, it ain't your car, kwitcherbitchin'!) is I take out my mp3 player, any car information I have in the glove compartment, and anything else that could compromise my identification or anyone else's. If I have games that I rented or something like that, those go with me too. Anything I have in the trunk that I don't want being taken that isn't too cumbersome to take out, I also take with. Why? Because I can always put it back in when they're done. (I think I'd notice if someone stole my spare tire when it's sitting there staring me in the face. And if someone switched it out with an identical flat one, well, I guess they really needed that tire more than I did.)

I fix my own computer so nobody else needs to see what I have on my computer. My girlfriend already knows exactly what's on it and she doesn't care, and she's the only other person who can access it. My account on this computer is passworded, so nobody else can get in. My girlfriend has her own account on it with her own password to make sure that she and I are the only ones on this, ever.

Handing your keys over to someone other than yourself is no different than giving your password to someone else. You're giving that person the ability to do as they want with things that belong to YOU. People are NOT honest. An individual person may be, but people in general are NOT. You all have been there to know this at some point in your life, and hell, some of you probably have your share of stories as well. So don't go acting like this is a total shocker - it's not.

And as others have indicated, sometimes it works out for the better. Stopping child pornography is a thing I would definitely encourage. I think you'd be pissed if the acne infested kid at the pharmacy found photos of a child porn operation on film going on in your area, and they said nothing to the authorities, would you not? I think you'd be livid, parent or not, and moreso if you found out that a kid on that film was a missing person.

So if you don't want people stealing the TV out of your house, try locking your damn doors AND your windows. It might even help to get a security system for your house. Hell, go to Fry's and get yourself a camera setup if you're that paranoid. If you don't want anyone wrecking your car, DON'T GIVE THE VALET YOUR KEYS! Park it your damn self, lock the doors and roll up the windows, and for god's sake get a car alarm that can do more than just wake up your neighborhood.

The things that belong to you mean only as much to you as you intend to protect them. So if you don't protect it, don't bitch if someone takes it. There's a reason WHY you have someone in the house when the plumber or the cable guy comes over. It's not just to let them in and do their job. If you're that dumb to let a total stranger in your house and leave them unsupervised in your home, whatever gets stolen is your own damn fault.
 
Well then, there you have it.. When you take your computer in for repair, demand to be able to stand there and look over the tech's shoulder the whole time. That's the only feasable action if things are supposed to be that way, where giving a computer for repair is like giving them permission to do whatever they want.

I wonder if they even allow that?

I suddenly want to make my own computer repair company 'Privacy Squad!' that has the slogan "we just do our jobs, not root through your shit!" :D
 
Technoob said:
If I leave my back door unlocked, I guess people can steal my TV and there's no problem.
If I take my car to the mechanic, and left my wallet in the trunk, or my golf clubs, I guess they can go use them.
If I use valet parking, I guess they can go drive my car around for a few hours.

And so on. The attitudes on here are pretty disturbing. I feel bad for the people who take their computers or anything else to thieving dishonest bastards like the ones from this video...and apparently some on this forum.
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If you leave your back door unlocked, you expect someone to steal your TV. So you always lock your door.
If you take your car to the mechanic, theres a small possibility the mechanic will look at personal stuff in the glove compartment. So you take it with you when you hand over the car.
If you use a valet, theres always a small chance the valet could mess up your car. That's why you and the valet both have insurance.

If you have personal data on your computer, and there is a small chance a technician might look at it, you should back it up and store it elsewhere...or you can encrypt or password protect the folders...an option that's available on any modern windows machine.

Point is...
You always have to expect people NOT to do the right thing. Most of the time people do the right thing, but theres always a small chance they won't. Sometimes its unavoidable...that's life.:rolleyes:
There's always the legal system if something valuable is taken.

I consider this porn and music stealing absolutely nothing. This is a slap on the hand offense at best. Nothing surprises me anymore. I would expect any tech to flip through my porn collection or school papers, or music. If they copy it, so be it. As long as they don't delete it. I still have the original copies I paid for. They can take the risk of getting caught with illegal copies.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
If you have personal data on your computer, and there is a small chance a technician might look at it, you should back it up and store it elsewhere...or you can encrypt or password protect the folders...an option that's available on any modern windows machine.

Point is...
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The point is that you're completely missing the point. The issue isn't even whether you care if someone looks at your shit. After all, in this case, the consumerist computer didn't lose anything, nothing was stolen. The question is whether someone doing such a thing is wrong when you take a computer, a car, a toaster, or whatever it is to a professional company to have something done to it. All of the people saying that's cool, then fine, it's also cool when its not just porn.

It's still a crime whether its porn, whether the consumer didn't encrypt their files, and most important:

The public has a right to know that apparently all you jackass computer techs think its ok to peruse all of their personal information.

If this is no big deal, then best buy should have large disclaimers:

ATTENTION: WE WILL FEEL FREE TO LOOK AT, COPY, USE, TRANSFER, OR OTHERWISE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ANYTHING ON YOUR COMPUTER THAT IS NOT ENCRYPTED. AND IF WE CAN BREAK THAT ENCRYPTION....WELL, WE'LL DO THAT TOO.
 
To say to keep all of ones private stuff on a computer encrypted at all times isn't equivilent to locking your doors and windows to keep theives out of the house and from your stuff. That would be like saying "store all of your expensive stuff in a large safe in your house when you aren't using it". Imagine having to pull out all the A/V equipment and set it up everytime you wanted to sit down and watch a movie? Decrypting and encrypting data constantly with large passphrases is a monumental pain in the ass. It's great for external storage and backing up, but for everyday use, I just don't buy it. Plus is costs money to buy decent encryption software that isn't defeatable, pile on that the cost of protecting ones stuff when they are connected to the internet, and keeping themselves protected from viruses and other nasties trying to come in.. One shouldn't have to constantly encrypt their entire hard drive just in case the computer needs repairing. It's feasable only if somebody was getting an upgrade or something, where they can do the work to move stuff off the drive before hand.

As for the child porn sentiment from the other guy, I have hear that so much.. I am really curious to what extent would people allow themselves to be monitored, in enhance the chance of catching somebody who posessed it. Just as far as having techs be told to look for it when they are repairing a machine (yes that's been done), or further, like allowing, say, Microsoft to update the OS to allow the FBI to scan people's machine for child porn when they connected to the internet? Just curious at what point will people say "whoa, okay, stop the train, I think I am getting off here." :D

I, personally, don't think it's usable for an excuse to allow techs to go through people's stuff. That's what the police and the FBI computer task force is for. I think it's kind of lame that they would use techs to get around the need for warrants anyway. I find it hard to respect those that are supposed to enforce the law bending it themselves. There is always that fine line between the desire to serve justice and the need to preserve rights.
 
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