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Why You Shouldn't Trust Geek Squad (networkworld.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Network World: The Orange County Weekly reports that Best Buy's "Geek Squad" repair technicians routinely search devices brought in for repair for files that could earn them $500 reward as FBI informants. This revelation came out in a court case, United States of America v. Mark A. Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier is a prominent Orange County physician and surgeon who took his laptop to the Mission Viejo Best Buy in November 2011 after he was unable to start it. According to court records, Geek Squad technician John "Trey" Westphal found an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck." Westphal notified his boss, who was also an FBI informant, who alerted another FBI informant -- as well as the FBI itself. The FBI has pretty much guaranteed the case will be thrown out by its behavior, this illegal search aside. According to Rettenmaier's defense attorney, agents conducted two additional searches of the computer without obtaining necessary warrants, lied to trick a federal magistrate judge into authorizing a search warrant for his home, then tried to cover up their misdeeds by initially hiding records. Plus, the file was found in the unallocated "trash" space, meaning it could only be retrieved by "carving" with sophisticated forensics tools. Carving (or file carving) is defined as searching for files or other kinds of objects based on content, rather than on metadata. It's used to recover old files that have been deleted or damaged. To prove child pornography, you have to prove the possessor knew what he had was indeed child porn. There has been a court case where files found on unallocated space did not constitute knowing possession because it's impossible to determine who put the file there and how, since it's not accessible to the user under normal circumstances.
than their warrantless searches
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Kiddie porn on a computer doesn't imply guilt for the owner. He could have been the subject of a rick-roll type thing, via email or web, and quickly deleted the offending image, which he may have had no intention of downloading/viewing. It's not even close.
And, the individuals involved should be sued into homelessness for invasion of privacy, etc. Best Buy, too, to the extent they were aware and didn't prevent it.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
This one was a possible paedophile. Since it was only one photo, it was probably something sent to him, or from a popup on some random website.
What else do they look for? Credit card numbers? Tax records? Other identity theft info? Anything embarrassing they can ransom?
The other problem is they used a tool to scan unallocated space for deleted files. That takes time. Are they charging customers for that extra time?
...and with a few moments of searching the web, they could have a nice handy thumb drive full of images they would "detect" on some guy's computer, and get a nice little bonus from the FBI...
"Yeeeah, I found another one this week. Yup, it's surprising how many of these weirdos have computer problems and show up at my store. How soon does my check get here?"
"Illegally searched his computer, get paid to find illegal material and HEY SURPRISE I FOUND ILLEGAL MATERIAL WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Lie to a judge to obtain a search warrant, etc. etc."
There's a reason we demand a certain level of ethics from our law enforcement professionals, mainly so that the cases they put together have even a slim chance of making it through a trial without being tossed out by even a barely competent judge. Did this guy have child porn on his computer? Who knows, the Geek Squad guys have so completely muddled the issue to line their own pockets with the FBI's help we'll never find out.
I often wonder if you "by any means" types would be so cavalier about situations like this if it were you under the FBI's lens.
No, I don't mind. Because I don't have any illegal drugs or child pornography for the plumber to find.
What about the illegal drugs and child pornography that the previous occupant left hidden in the wall, next to the water pipes? You know, the ones you now have to prove aren't yours?
Well, you didn't. But for $500 some kid at Best Buy might put some on your computer for you.
You sick pedo fuck.
I have a second concern along the same lines . . . let us assume that the Geek Squad isn't engaging in shenanigans for profit. How are they inspecting my hard drive, and can they assure me that they won't cause a data loss?
Similar thing happened to a family member of mine as well when he bought his first house. He is a police officer and had a bunch of his cop friends visit. One stopped by at the start of his shift to drop of a present and brought in his canine partner. Well, the dog alerted in the middle of the living room and they discovered a stash hidden there. So they took the dog around the property and found a bunch of stuff in multiple rooms, including those bales like you see on TV. I can only imagine the kind of response that he would have gotten if the cops weren't his friends and knew he'd just bought the house.
Where is your name? Are you trying to hide something?
Since you ask:
US Constitution, Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home
or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has
the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Anything else you'd like me to Google for you?
Exactly. The bigger issue is that they are looking through all your files. The number of people who have nude pictures of themselves or other people legally far outweighs the number of people with illegal pictures. This means that the guys at Geek Squad will definitely lookat the nude pics of their customers. Even the ones that were intentionally deleted by people before they take their computers in for service to prevent such a thing.
If this is not a violation of privacy then what is? Why are they looking in the first place if they usually only find legal stuff? What do they do with the legal nudes they typically find? Do they also shows those to the other FBI informants/repair monkeys they work with? Or maybe make personal copies?
Shouldn't TFH be "Why someone who engages in criminal behavior shouldn't trust Geek Squad?"
What about if you have legal adult naked videos/pictures of yourself having sex with your wife? Do you want the teenage geek squad employee to look through those videos/pictures too? After all, he would need to look inside those videos/pictures if he wants to ascertain what they contain.
Not only that, but he's looking at the deleted files too. So even if you or your wife deleted that content, he will be able to find it. The same goes for your phone. I assume the FBI has the same deal with cell phone repair technicians. Do they also look scan/watch all your pictures/videos including your deleted ones too?
And at Best Buy during work, how does it work if a manager catches an employee going through the private videos/pictures of customers? Does the manager give the employee a free pass if the employee offers to split the FBI reward with him? Or does the employee need to make a copy of the hard drive to bring home to review at home at his leisure? How does that work exactly?
The Geek Squad techs were, according to the article, "active informants" for the FBI, which is to say, they agreed to be beforehand. That means they are agents of the government, which means they are under the same restrictions as the cops. So if you think it's OK for Geek Squad to search your computer without a warrant, you believe it's OK for the cops to do the same thing, because it is the same thing.
Aside from that, the FBI did additional searches without warrants, like to get warrants, and apparently continues to hide evidence. They claimed the informants told them they (the informants, that is) had "accidentally" run the carving software that was, in no way, involved in repairing the computer, and found the image. So either the informants (at least one, and likely all three) lied to the FBI under penalty of perjury, or the FBI agent getting the warrant perjured himself to the judge. Or both.
There isn't an FBI agent involved in this case that doesn't belong in prison for corruption. Same for the prosecutor, at this point, because it is long since possible for him to not be aware of the FBI's corruption.
Best Buy is the least guilty of anything, and apparently, according to the update at the bottom, actually have policies prohibiting their employees from accepting any kind of reward for reporting this stuff. Whether or not they'll fire the employees named (there are three) for doing so remains to be seen. They are correct, though, that once they become aware of child porn on a computer, they're required to report it.
You can analyse validity of warrants and question the admissibility of evidence all you want, but that overlooks a fact: Most prosecutions don't go to trial. They end in plea bargains. Sure, that particular evidence might be unusable - but the fact that the FBI knows about it may well be enough to get the suspect to confess anyway. The particular example in the article did lawyer up and fight it, but how many times has a similar story happened that didn't become interesting and public enough to get noticed?
Great. It should only require a few years of dealing with tough-on-crime prosecutors and judges to make use of that, whilst your name is being publically dragged through the mud.
Yes, exactly. Only people who have little first-hand experience with law enforcement or the courts would think that being innocent will make things easier. An innocent person can easily be bankrupted and have their lives altered by having to defend themselves against the criminal justice system.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)