What is Digg?214 Comments
- sexybobo, on 05/05/2008, -1/+91When you take your computer to them you authorizes access to your computer and all documents on it. What they are doing is not illegal but it is something you should be aware of if you are dumb enough to take your computer in to geek squad
- SwornPacifist, on 05/05/2008, -3/+78Article from the dead website:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minneapolis (MN) - As a high-profile lawsuit against Best Buy's Geek Squad technical support service gets ready for court, a new employee confession has come through detailing one of the company's more questionable policies.
The lawsuit, filed in Hennepin County, Minnesota, claims that when a computer comes into a Geek Squad center, the employees comb through personal files and sometimes copy lewd or other content over to their own personal flash drive.
According to Minneapolis newspaper The Star Tribune, the lawsuit was filed quickly after an anonymous employee sent a letter to online consumer advocate site The Consumerist. In the letter, the employee wrote, "If you have any interesting pictures of yourself or others on your computer, then they -- will -- be -- found."
Geek Squad says it takes "reasonable precautions to protect against the loss, misuse and unauthorized access of your personal information."
Geek Squad, which is the self-claimed largest computer support company in the country, downplayed the event by saying it was an isolated incident. However, a new employee has come forward confessing a similar action.
William Giffels came forward and said he sought out revealing pictures of a customer who brought in a computer for repairs. He copied the pictures to his flash drive, and then were copied to multiple CDs used in the Geek Squad department of the store.
"It was dumb, and I regret that lapse in judgment. I have placed Best Buy in a precarious position, both legally and 'reputationally,'" said Giffels. Several other people claiming to be Geek Squad employees have quietly admitted to doing the same kind of thing.
Best Buy says it has increased the number of audits it conducts at its Geek Squad locations, but advocates suggest the store needs to completely overhaul its operation. "No matter what investigative protocol Best Buy uses, someone is going to find a way around it," said Consumerist editor Ben Popken to the Star Tribune.
With regard to controversy, though, Best Buy remains defensive. "Our agents only see the data they need to," said Best Buy spokesperson Paula Baldwin. - NinjaBoy, on 05/05/2008, -0/+61Agreed. Its like taking your car into a mechanic. You might want to take the naughty photos of your wife out of the glove box first.
- RazDakarn, on 05/05/2008, -7/+66In the letter, the employee wrote, "If you have any interesting pictures of yourself or others on your computer, then they -- will -- be -- found."
This is not admissable in court, and it's obviously not policy.
This is pot-stirring. - TRScheel, on 05/05/2008, -4/+59How is this not surprising? You get High School - College age males in that situation and their priorities are a little skewed to this behavior. You're only bound to get it
- Harabeck, on 05/05/2008, -0/+38And this is surprising? Guys who get bored and around a lot of other people's computers will look through them. This is a warning to all users of computer repair places: remove sensitive data if you can from the computer, it is very possible the techs will dig through your files.
- Ryan454, on 05/05/2008, -4/+38Does this really surprise anyone?
- kingmanic, on 05/05/2008, -1/+30Or the dead bodies. /Different strokes.
- freakydingo, on 05/05/2008, -1/+30Not defending the snoopers here, but people seriously leave this stuff on their comp when they have it repaired, expecting it not to be found? Kind of silly. They don't deserve to violated like that, but take some precautions at least.
- PhoneGuy, on 05/05/2008, -11/+39Anyone who relies on the Geek Squad for computer repairs deserves what they get.
- Speed, on 05/05/2008, -0/+22If you send a computer in for repairs, aren't you implying consent to search around the computer? I mean a virus can theoretically be in any file on the hard disk.
Maybe I'm completely wrong (I don't know how US privacy laws work), but wouldn't send a computer if for repair be waiving your reasonable expectations for privacy? - vajra918, on 05/05/2008, -2/+19http://duggmirror.com/tech_news/Employee_confessio ...
- revjustin2, on 05/05/2008, -0/+16I don't remember that episode. Must have happened near then end when they brought in that cheesy little white kid.
- micflo, on 05/05/2008, -0/+16Yeah its amazing how many people are willing to pay $159 for someone to click install, next, next and finish.
- ninjasaurus, on 05/05/2008, -8/+23░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
░░░░██████████████░░░░░░
░░██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░████░░
░░███████░░░░░░░░░████░░
░░██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░████░░
░░███████░░░░░░░░░████░░
░░██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░████░░
░░███████░░░░░░░░░████░░
░░██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░████░░
░░░░██████░░░░░░██░░░░░░
░░░░░░░░░░██░░░░██░░░░░░
░░░░░░░░░░██░░░░██░░░░░░
░░░░░░░░░░░░████░░░░░░░░
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ - YodaJones, on 05/05/2008, -2/+14Geek Squad: Taking advantage of old people and stealing data since 2002
- loobis, on 05/05/2008, -5/+16Whenever this Busted Tees ad comes up, whatever article I was about to click on suddenly becomes a lot less interesting.
http://ll.atdmt.com/b/MSMSNMATCBT8/milkshake300x25 ...
I don't want it to go away. - plamoni, on 05/05/2008, -0/+11I think Hubris is on the right track, though... I mean, thanks to the precedent set by our friends at the RIAA, there's a simple series of steps customers can go through in order to gain relief:
1: Assume their rights have been violated
2: Hack into the computer suspected of violating their rights (If you don't know the IP, just make up 4 numbers between 0 and 255 and have at it...)
3: Find "evidence" of this violation
4: File an ex parte John Doe suit against the person suspected of violating said rights (we don't want those pesky defense lawyers getting in the way of JUSTICE!)
5: Send out a few letters to 12-year-olds and dead old people demanding payment for the violation.
6: Collect thousands of dollars in settlements from the above people.
In the end, you make out pretty well... It doesn't matter that you extorted money from innocent people, violated the very essence of our legal system, and in the end didn't do anything to prevent the problem from recurring.. You made money, and isn't that the point?!
... Isn't it? - Hubris, on 05/05/2008, -0/+11I believe you are authorizing them to view the contents....making copies and distributing them might be copyright infringement as they have not given you distribution rights. Certainly a much lighter civil matter than any accusation of theft.
- revjustin2, on 05/05/2008, -0/+10"dame"? What is this? 1953? Did she have nice gams, daddy-o?
- aigulf, on 05/05/2008, -0/+10I really hope they're not copying lewd pictures of old people.... *shudder*
- WestonP, on 05/05/2008, -2/+11Buried as inaccurate. Just because a lot of people in the same department choose to do something wrong, does not make it "policy". Copying personal files is clearly not Best Buy's policy, and it would seem that they have a policy specifically against such things.
- MellerTime, on 05/05/2008, -0/+9I'm sure that's also in the papers you blindly sign when you drop the machine off. This is just another publicity suit that will be settled for several million dollars and in the end not actually accomplish anything but to make one more idiot rich.
- HonoredMule, on 05/05/2008, -0/+9Nice sentiment, but unrealistic, unfortunately. Consider how many 40-yr-old males would fit the same profile...heck, consider how many grandparent-age busybodies you know personally.
Such behaviour will only /ever/ be curbed by stringent auditing and supervision. No one outside kindergarten thinks it's morally ok...but everyone knows it's a practically consequence-free "safe crime" when no one is policing the access of private data. - surfernerd6987, on 05/05/2008, -5/+14Haha, more power to the small businesses that it tried to overcome. They deserve everything that it coming to them.
- thcobbs, on 05/05/2008, -0/+9What's worse is when people bring in computers that are eaten up by viruses and porn redirects get indignant when you tell them that its because they look at porn sites without any virus/malware scanners.
- wellyuk, on 05/05/2008, -1/+10Any reason you typed your comment like some kind of a retard?
- doctechnical, on 05/05/2008, -3/+12How old does someone have to be before they're expected to understand the concept of "keep your nose out of other people's stuff"? I figured most grade-schoolers had that figured out. Let's not lower the bar on morality any more than it is.
- Speed, on 05/05/2008, -0/+8I agree with that, but I'm under the impression that the lawsuit alleges privacy violations, not copyright infringement.
- jeruvin, on 05/05/2008, -0/+8not everyone has a computer that still functions enough to clear their dirty laundry from the hard drive.
- ohhaiitsryan, on 05/05/2008, -0/+8okay, ready to accept the reality of it yet?
yeah, youre right, its dumb to rely on a single drive.
but lets look at the situation at hand.
more than likely, someone bringing a computer to geek squad is not going to be computer savvy in the least, and also likely not to take your mentioned precautions.
"aw dude my internets not working... geek squad can fix it" - thats the general mindset of someone going there... not "gee, my computer seems to be on the fritz, before bringing this in to be looked at by a few guys in blue polos who know everything in the world about computers and the like, i would be wise to back up each file i own, and especially hide those photographs of that dame we got drunk one night that i havent seen in months." - trshtehdsh, on 05/05/2008, -0/+8meh, would you take your car to a car shop and leave porn under the seat? probably not. i don't know why people think a computer would be any different.
- lar3ry, on 05/05/2008, -2/+9People bring dead computers in all the time.
Most of them don't have the foresight to realize that the computer is going to conk out tomorrow, so they should remove the sensitive stuff (not just porn, but web history and cache with personal information, etc.) the day before.
Face it, most people don't even realize that some of this is happening behind the scenes.
These are the people that are going to be bringing their computers and laptops to places like Geek Squad. There is an implicit trust in the relationship, just as if you leave your car in a car park, you don't expect the valets to which you handed the keys to be driving all over Chicago at 95 MPH in it while you are gone. Even Bueller gets it wrong.
Even if this is not Best Buy policy, if it can be proved that any person with any responsibility knew about this, or allowed this with a nod and a wink, or even just simply allowed an employee to touch a computer with a flash drive in his or her pocket (you mean, there's no policy about THAT???), then the employee(s), manager, district manager, or even the company can and should be found liable. To what extent should be left to a judge and/or jury.
I remember seeing an article where a person posted a VIDEO of a display logger that was running on their own system while being serviced by Best Buy. The video clearly shows the employee was snooping around and snarfing image files that looked "interesting." That one incident should have caused Best Buy to ban those flash drives from employees during work hours, just like security conscious companies ban the use of cell phone cameras or other similar things at the work place. Sure, you can carry one in and not get caught, but if you take a snap and somebody sees you, you know that you'll be escorted to the door and a subpoena may be waiting for you when you get home from your ex-job. - sexybobo, on 05/05/2008, -0/+7So if a Geek squad employee goes to make a house call to fix a pc and kills the person whos computer they fix it would be best buys fault?
- Wintermute426, on 05/05/2008, -1/+8Because he's a /b/tard, of course.
- Speed, on 05/05/2008, -0/+7Question: I see a lot of Diggers claim that Best Buy isn't punishing offenders, etc. but how do we know? Best Buy legally can't disclose a persons employment status to the media (or any punishment they may have received), especially when they already have a lawsuit (valid or not) claiming they violated customers privacy. They can't violate an employees privacy just because said employee violated a customers.
- RealmDown, on 05/05/2008, -5/+12Older, I guess, than the people who make person income and religious affiliations the backbones of political elections.
- InThePants, on 05/05/2008, -0/+7I worked at a computer shop about 4 years ago or so briefly, it wasn't a big shop, just a local one..anyway people would bring in their computers all the time just loaded to the ***** with viruses and spyware because their kids would download so much crap that the only option left was to back up the valuable stuff, format the drive, and give them a fresh install of windows.
We wouldn't snoop for stuff, but when your daughter has naked pictures of herself in the "My Pictures" folder and we're told to back up the pictures, it's hard not to find that stuff. Anyway we'd look at it, show the other guys, and move on... We wouldn't keep copies cause that's just creepy. - MiDri, on 05/05/2008, -0/+6unless I rename all my jpg to .pron!
- RealmDown, on 05/05/2008, -0/+6Firefox is fine and so is the website. It's your laptop. Better take it in for service.
- TheKingInYellow, on 05/05/2008, -0/+6i'm just going out on a limb here but i'll go ahead and take a wild guess as to where you can obtain "lewd or other content". . . the internet.
- 4pple5auce, on 05/05/2008, -17/+23NoobSquad gets pwnd
- kingmanic, on 05/05/2008, -1/+6Bringing your computer to GS to fix is like bringing your Car to a high school mechanics class to fix. Stuff will be stolen, a poor job will be done, but unlike the high school mechanics class you will be over charged. I haven't heard a single good experience from people about them. From my casual experience with them, the majority of their staff are pretty low on the tech knowledge totem.
- loobis, on 05/05/2008, -0/+5Very very nice, but I still like my girl better. It adds to the mystery how you can only see the bottom of her hot face. And notice the way they stretch the shirt around her boobs at a slight angle, thus highlighting their perfection? That is art. Kudos to whoever shot that.
- dummptyhummpty, on 05/05/2008, -2/+7I worked for Geek Squad about a year ago and while I disagreed with some practices, I NEVER saw this happening. We were too busy trying to fix things and handle in-store customers to be looking through computers. Plus the thought of a manager catching someone doing this, I don't think that would be good.
- gonats, on 05/05/2008, -1/+6um, yes it is
FRE 803 (D)(2)(d) - unknownsoldierX, on 05/05/2008, -0/+5Or Vista. Or Google/Windows Desktop Search.
- darkamster07, on 05/05/2008, -0/+5you are right, in this case (for once) best buy is innocent. Privacy is very important, but I just think that people don't understand that when you send in your computer, or really whenever you allow access to your computer by anyone other than yourself, you had better have any embarassing/incriminating stuff hidden away/removed; it's just common sense. although i do think they should do more to discourage this behavior and punish those resposible. honestly, in an age where every kind of porn is freely available to anyone with internet access, do you need to be stealing/peeking at other people's stashes?
- j0siahAstacy, on 05/05/2008, -0/+4Customers have been known to leave porn DVDs in their computers when bringing them to the Geek Squad. Agents don't always have to snoop to find things customers don't want them to. Aside from that, every customer signs a disclaimer that effectively removes almost any liability for data or hardware from the Geek Squad. This kind of law suit hasn't gotten very many people very many places. You shouldn't sue over policy unless you know what the policy is, and it is by no means Best Buy's policy to copy customer data without their explicit consent. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's a fireable offense.
- piratearggghhh, on 05/05/2008, -0/+4I worked at Best Buy as a tech before they turned into Geek Squad and part of the reason why I left (besides getting into grad school and being too busy) was their shift from focusing on actually fixing and upgrading, which I liked, to being salesmen basically. Once I got a pressure to pressure customers to do unecessary services and upgrades and sell MSN 3 year contracts (remember those), there went any future tech services employee of month awards. A bunch of idiot salesmen became techs and the work backlog grew since few techs who didn't quit actually did the work after the sale. Once it became GS, I knew the transformation was complete and now it's an "elite" position - what a joke - now they're even arrogant to boot.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 214 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 