Slashdot Mirror
FBI Paid Geek Squad Repair Staff As Informants (zdnet.com)
According to newly released documents by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, federal agents would pay Geek Squad employees to flag illegal materials on devices sent in by customers for repairs. "The relationship goes back at least ten years, according to documents released as a result of the lawsuit [filed last year]," reports ZDNet. "The agency's Louisville division aim was to maintain a 'close liaison' with Geek Squad management to 'glean case initiations and to support the division's Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs.'" From the report: According to the EFF's analysis of the documents, FBI agents would "show up, review the images or video and determine whether they believe they are illegal content" and seize the device so an additional analysis could be carried out at a local FBI field office. That's when, in some cases, agents would try to obtain a search warrant to justify the access. The EFF's lawsuit was filed in response to a report that a Geek Squad employee was used as an informant by the FBI in the prosecution of child pornography case. The documents show that the FBI would regularly use Geek Squad employees as confidential human sources -- the agency's term for informants -- by taking calls from employees when they found something suspect.
You love to say "I told you so..." ~ Georgia Lass, Dead Like Me
Yeah, I kinda do, don't I? Anyone taking something like that to someplace like that and assumes their shit isn't being combed through either by someone looking for jackoff material, or worse, something to rat you out to the feds for, is a goddamned fucking moron. (Damn, what is up with my LANGUAGE lately, huh?!? Oh, shit... I have "SAILOR-MODE" set to "enabled".... That explains it. SHIT... I can't fucking disable it! What the fuck! I'm supposed to sing in my church's choir this Sunday! What the fuck am I going to DO?!?!) ^o^
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
We did this last year it seems:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
and
https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
But hey, it's still interesting
...omphaloskepsis often...
And that, my friends, is why I've never brought my kitty-porn-laden computers into Geek Squad for service! Well, that, and the fact that they know a lot less about computers than I do!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The repair techs were being paid to actively search through the computers and report anything "suspicious".
There is a difference between a plumber coming to fix your john and stumbling across a heap of porn magazines under the sink, and the same guy being paid to ruffle through all unlocked cabinets and drawers in your house while you're not looking.
Not to mention that if they were being paid by incident, they would have an incentive to plant such material. That alone should scream "reasonable doubt" to any sensible juror.
The question is about the methods that information was obtained by.
If a police officer is not allowed to search your hard drive without at least a probable cause (and possibly a warrant), then they should not be allowed to pay somebody to do it for them.
Like the other guys said, it’s a 4th Amendment issue. The cops can’t just hire people to do their (otherwise illegal, constitutionally prohibited) searches for them. They should be trying to obey the Constitution and protect our rights, not trying to work around them.
It’s up to the courts whether this sort of workaround is permissible. Courts have to make very clear rules.
Unless Geek Squad is legally required to report what they find, and unless they disclose that they will be searching for contraband, it’s a clear breach of trust on Geek Squad's part. Some of Geek Squad's customers probably deserve to have their trust breached. But the FBI was paying Geek Squad, so Geek Squad had a direct, corrupt incentive to breach every customer's trust.
"private citizens are required by law to report some of this stuff"
Please cite the specific federal law(s) you are referring to. "Private citizens", in general, are under no such obligation.
And yes, these claims do "hold water", though you are likely to lose one way or another if you test them. Might doesn't make right.
Another, possibly bigger, issue is that you've now given geek squad members incentive to plant evidence in exchange for cash.
How do you prove chain of custody in these cases? How much do you trust that near minimum wage "tech" from best buy who now gets paid every time he "finds" something on a computer?
Who knows. Jerry Sandusky brought down a whole lot of people at Penn State and the university president lost his job and got a misdemeanor conviction. Took a while for it all to percolate up to the top.
The government can't search your stuff without a warrant.
"The government" meaning, of course, people working for the government. It's unconstitutional for people working for the government, or on the government's behalf, to randomly search through your stuff.
Digging through YOUR stuff. They didn't find the CP by searching computers marked "this computer contains CP", they looked through everybody's pictures hoping to find something good, either CP or something that they enjoyed seeing.
Because the FBI was PAYING them, they are working on the government's behalf. The Fourth Amendment applies when the government pays people to do searches for them.
Easy. Mens rea does not apply to possession of child pornography. Simply possessing it is a crime, whether you knew about it or not, whether someone planted the evidence or not. If the technician will testify that he found it on the computer owned by the defendant, then that person is going to jail for a long time and will be a sex offender for life even if that child pornography was not on his computer until he handed it to Geek Squad.
This is what you get when Congress passes "think of the children" laws. Who is going to complain about tightening the screws on people who have child porn? Nobody - even if there is collateral legal damage.