What is Digg?342 Comments
- fnaqzna, on 10/15/2007, -5/+161Oh yeah... this so justifies the Geek Squad's incessant need to collect porn from customer computers.
- Shigglyboo, on 10/15/2007, -3/+110pedophiles are gross yes. but why is the computer repair man looking at pictures and videos instead of fixing my computer?
- Dradis, on 10/15/2007, -2/+100Yeah, the sick ***** at Geek Squad probably copied over the porn and then ratted the guy out.
- jtingley, on 10/14/2007, -7/+68When I worked for Best Buy I put one of those guys in the slammer, and again when I worked for Geeks on Call. There is a static rule most on site IT outfits have. When you encounter kiddie porn on any PC you immediately stop work, make up some excuse if the customer is around and refer to you're handbook which has the hot line number for the FBI's kiddie porn task force. I've had to use it 2 time in the past 6 years.
- VeritasAequitas, on 10/14/2007, -2/+54This same thing happened at my bench a few years back, though we weren't "Snooping around", or "stealing his porn" It actually was noticed when we were running a virus check and one of the agents noticed the names that were coming up on the screen were disgusting and named in such a way that it was evident that it was child porn. He never opened the file, rather he informed our supervisor or the files, and where they were located, the Super told the GM who called the Police. Again he wasn't snooping, and just happened to notice the disgusting names. Sometimes when you're working on someone's machine you can't help but notice things.
- enivid, on 10/14/2007, -2/+53Why are "Geek Squad" and "porn" always in the same sentence.
- doctechnical, on 10/14/2007, -2/+52Yeah, when I read this:
"A Geek Squad tech there found child porn pics on the PC and contacted the police, who obtained a search warrant and examined the PC."
...I immediately wondered if he dropped the dime before or after he made his own copy. - doctechnical, on 10/14/2007, -3/+52Indeed, how many repair operations generally require the tech to scan around for images or videos? Unless this guy had a folder shortcut on his desktop labeled "KIDDIE PR0N", I'd be asking the Squad member some questions as well...
- 8270369, on 10/14/2007, -1/+46People don't seem to realize it is naive to think it's only porn they're looking at. These Geek Squad people are reading through people's private mails, examining photographs of their children and other private family photos, wedding photos, funeral photos, personal financial information, the list goes on. Frankly some geek who gets his jollies out of looking at someone's photos of their kids in the bath tub or snapshots from a relative's funeral ought to be seeing some jail time and some serious therapy.
- DocHoliday22, on 10/10/2007, -3/+47I like the fact that paedophiles are getting caught by snooping techies at Geek Squad, but how do you stop these guys from snooping around in everyone elses PC? Do we need to backup, drive scrub, format, re-install OS before sending the PC to Geek Squad for fear of having our personal pics and documents nicked or posted all over the Internet?
I wouldn't feel comfortable giving my PC to these guys. - statik99, on 11/03/2009, -7/+47I agree with MrGutz... They invaded his privacy but at the same time got this guy off the streets... I dunno, file this under "karma kills" cause if it doesn't this guy's cell mate will.
- greenlight2001, on 10/14/2007, -1/+35Can you enlighten us on how you 'stumbled' onto the kiddie porn? Did they leave it right on the desktop? Did you do a search?
- TheWriteGuy, on 10/14/2007, -2/+29A better analogy would be taking one's car to a garage for repairs, and the mechanic discovering a stash of cocaine or other illicit drugs hidden inside the vehicle.
- panzermeyer, on 10/14/2007, -4/+29I guess all that practice of retrieving porn from people's computer came in handy finally.
- InfiniteNothing, on 10/14/2007, -1/+25Interesting that taking his laptop across state lines resulted in trafficking charges.
- Xolotl2, on 10/10/2007, -1/+24Yes, poking through people's files without their permission or consent is right because they might be pedophiles, just as listening to people's phone conversations is right because they might be terrorists.
- coheedcollapse, on 10/14/2007, -1/+23The guy is a perv, but is it really "trafficking" just because he took it across the state line? It's pretty obvious he just had some screwed up porn on his computer for personal consumption and he traveled with it, I doubt he brought it over with the intent to spread it to others.
- MattB123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+22Yeah, pretty much. I remember another article where the Geek Squad guys got a bunch of porn from a porn actress' laptop and distributed it. Who knows what else they might help themselves to if you don't have the porn they want. Think about any cached passwords, tax returns, or other things that could help someone steal your identity. I know i wouldn't trust them with my data!
- Bmarofsky, on 10/14/2007, -3/+23As a computer forensic investigator, When I have found CP on a PC it has always been in a folder with a peculiar label. I rarely have to "look" for it.
- Otto, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20It's a bit of a Catch-22, isn't it? Anybody who's capable of hiding their stuff from them (say, via encryption) is not the kind of person who needs their services in the first place.
Now, while I doubt this guy has any recourse, somebody else who gets their stuff ripped off this way has the makings of a fantastic lawsuit on their hands. - DangerCollie, on 10/14/2007, -5/+25The article didn't have a lot of detail, one would hope there's a good deal of supporting evidence beyond what's in the laptop. Otherwise the Geek Squad just became the local mafia. We'd hate to see any...ah...inappropriate images turn up on yous computer, now would we? Maybe they don't like the way you talked to them at the counter, so they load your laptop with kiddie p0rn and call the cops. Hilarity ensues. Or maybe one of them takes a liking to your girlfriend, ala Eternal Sunshine.
It makes me wonder what kind of back room dealing is going on between law enforcement and computer tech organizations like Geek Squad? That may sound paranoid until you stop and realize AT$T was cooperating on spying on the American public. Printer manufacturers cooperate with the yellow dot water marking, banks have to report suspicious transactions to Homeland Security, scanner makers work with the Treasure Dept. People who develop pictures at drug stores report suspicious images.
I'm conflicted because, if this guy was guilty, I'm glad they put him away. But I'm sort of concerned about this disturbing trend of developing a nation of hall monitors. - fnaqzna, on 10/10/2007, -6/+25Right... and when the appliance repairman shows up to fix your washer/dryer, it's perfectly okay for him to rifle through your closets and drawers too ('cause they might be the source of the problem).
Okay... - Fhwqhgads, on 10/14/2007, -9/+26posting from jail are you, Mr. Fortino?
- Neiby, on 10/14/2007, -0/+17A guy actually had a folder titled "Illegal Porn"?? WTF??
- aspec, on 10/14/2007, -0/+17You joke about it, but I've actually had that happen. Actually it was two shortcuts on his desktop "Hot little girls" and "Illegal Porn", but close enough.
- fnaqzna, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16Really, have you ever found JPG or WMV files to cause problems?
- aspec, on 10/14/2007, -1/+17Yep, left it on his desktop. You'd be surprised what people leave there. My Favorites were always "She male porn" or "Scat Porn", then you show them that everything is working on their laptop (which you've thoroughly disinfected by then) and they see the folder and remember they left it there and spend the next 20 minutes blushing.
But this guy needed to go to jail. - r00tus3r, on 10/14/2007, -0/+15But the point is, you had to go LOOKING IN the folder that you had no business in. It's great that this guy was put behind bars, but it's not so great if you carry your computer to geek squad with embarrassing pictures of you or anyone you know. Point is, they really shouldn't have been in a position to have found it.
- akatherder, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15Only if you keep naked kids in your washer.
- inactive, on 10/14/2007, -0/+15 I always wonder if this meant he had pictures of 15 year olds or 5 year olds. I believe both are considered child porn but there is a difference at least in my mind.
- Nougat, on 10/14/2007, -0/+15I thought everyone put it in a folder called "stuff."
- hokie47, on 10/14/2007, -2/+15Do you know how easy a IT person could ruin someones life. Place some kiddie porn on your computer, change some of the file information. Call police, and the person is good as dead.
How about a disgruntled IT employee at your work placing it on your computer? Even if you could get a fair trial and be found not guilty, your life would be over. Your work will not take you back, and few would ever really trust you again. - justforaminute, on 10/14/2007, -1/+14Please consider the following scenario:
A person starts up his favorite file-sharing network to download some new porn.
In the search terms, he enters the word "*****" (because he likes boobies).
He waits for the results to come back...and there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of files with the word "*****" in the filename.
He doesn't want to wade through *all* of these filenames, so he presses CTRL-A to select all of the files.
Then he clicks the "Download" button and walks away from the computer for a few hours.
When he gets back, he sees that he has successfully downloaded 500 files.
He checks out a few of them, but decides to wait until later to check out the rest.
Now, let's suppose he's really really addicted to internet porn. He may do this a few times each day.
Day after day. Week after week.
It's pretty easy to see that he can end up with 10,000 or more porn files on his computer (perhaps, even, more than 100,000). And there's a good chance he hasn't gotten through all of them (or even most of them).
He's addicted to porn. He can't help it that he wants to get as much as he can get his hands on. That's the nature of the addiction.
Now, here's the potential problem for him:
Some of the people who share the porn on these P2P (file-sharing) networks end up naming them things like "***** blonde asian mature cheerleader babysitter secretary kiddie porn ass anal bestiality BDSM facial hustler vivid girl gets it on with 4 guys.mpg"
Now, there may or may *not* be child porn in this file. But the guy's computer downloaded it because it had the word "*****" in its filename.
And he hasn't gone through all of his porn files (remember, he's addicted...so there's a bunch of stuff that he's never even seen the *filename* of).
Now this guy has put himself into potential jeopardy: he may have illegal child porn on his computer.
But, he may not even be *aware* that he does.
It seems a shame that a person could end up in serious legal trouble (and social trouble, too...just look at all of the assumptions being made about this guy by most of the people here) in this scenario.
They said they found 3 files (if I remember correctly from the article).
But what if he had 99,997 files of totally *legal* porn as well.
Wouldn't *that* be a stronger indication of what kind of person he is? Sure, he's a porn addict...but, maybe, just maybe, he didn't even know those 3 child porn files were on his computer.
Finally, I'm not saying that this is the case with Mr. Fortino.
I'm just saying that, with the current laws, coupled with the ease of downloading from the P2P networks, coupled with the weird naming conventions of some of the porn files out there on the web, coupled with a guy's compulsion to download as many pictures or videos of "*****"...with all this...it's way too easy for an innocent person to get caught up in the child porn net. - fant0m, on 10/14/2007, -3/+16Geek Squad screwing over yet another customer.... (just kidding)
I see points to both sides... if they did in fact invade his privacy, that was wrong - but I think a greater good came out of it.
I think it is *similar* to the debate whether or not the research conducted on humans during the holocaust should be used.... it was unethically done, but why let that (potentially) useful information go to waste?
I think that can be said here - they may have invaded his privacy, but they did a decent thing by getting him locked up, and in the bigger picture of things, made the world (somewhat) a better place. I don't really like Geek Squad, but I give them props for doing this. - Gir53457, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12As a former non-certified tech for a computer shop I can tell you that 90% of us just take your music and the other 10% look at your porn and make fun of you by showing the other 90% if you have a specific fetish. We usually just look at your internet history, laugh and leave it at that, we don't have enough time to look at all your wedding photos or personal emails.
- jtingley, on 10/14/2007, -1/+13In both cases actually it was that random picture screen saver that comes with windows XP that screwed these guys. At BBY I had the thing sitting on my bench and let it sit while I was talking to customers and I turned around and BAM! 12 year old girl naked as can be. Exact same scenario played out 2 years later when I worked for GOC, random picture screen saver made me want to scrub my eyes with acid.
- betmercedez, on 10/14/2007, -12/+23Good. bubye!
- xCaRpEnOCtemx, on 10/14/2007, -2/+13Not to justify Geek Squad since I worked there for two years and hated the place but... I found ***** like this on one guys computer since I was doing scans for spyware and all of this kiddy PRoN spyware came up. Once you see that stuff you have to check the PC out to make sure that he hasn't been doing things like that and report it to the police. They come in and check it out themselves then decide what to do. Don't assume that all Geek Squad employees are sick porn hungry bastards some actually have a conscience like myself.
With that said Geek Squad can go to hell. - Otto, on 10/14/2007, -1/+12Perfect analogy.
- Otto, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11It is possible to think that this guy got what he deserved while still thinking that the geek squad pricks shouldn't be looking around through users hard drives.
However, it's also a lesson: You should encrypt stuff that you want to keep private. - bdurkin, on 10/14/2007, -5/+16The minute you hand someone at Best Buy your computer to fix, is the minute your privacy rights go out the window. Fix it yourself or stop looking at kiddie porn. It is as simple as that. ***** this dude.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I'm not sure if that's a better example, but if the appliance repairman starts going through the pockets of the clothes in my washer/dryer and finds, say a bag of weed for example..then calls the cops, we have a problem.
Morally it's a bit more tricky when dealing with child pornography though, as most people will agree that it is bad and to have possession of it is bad. That, however, shouldn't excuse them from searching through the stuff to begin with. What if you took your computer in to be serviced, and the techs found a ***** of pirated music/movies, then called the RIAA and friends? - lburgguy, on 10/14/2007, -1/+12Okay, what if my ex worked at the Geek Squad and decided to plant this crap on my computer?? Just saying. Can they prove it is his porn? If so I say lock him away.
- zengonzo, on 10/14/2007, -0/+10True, but you were dealing with evidence. If Geek Squad feels the need to "look" at all through anyone's folders, strangely-named or otherwise, that raises concerns.
- inigomntoya, on 10/14/2007, -0/+10"There is a time and place people like this should be caught and prosecuted" - yeah, like the privacy of their own home?
I think it really depends on how the Geek came across the files. Were they actively searching the hard drive for all .jpg files? Did they come across it while deleting an Internet temp folder? Or did a virus/spyware scan find it? - stutimandal, on 10/14/2007, -4/+14One more reason why we should replace the hard drive of our computer ourselves
- smedrick, on 10/14/2007, -3/+12I think the Geek Squad needs to take a look at your computer.
- Ory303, on 10/14/2007, -0/+9@grouchyman
No, by his logic, we shouldn't put away people who look at pictures of murdered people. Which we don't. - kingkilr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Or the screencaps of them taking any folder with media in it and dumping it to an external drive for later viewing.
- inactive, on 10/14/2007, -0/+9And then lose the flash drive at work.
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