Computer Repair Shops - Your Personal Files

[rssc]

After reading this, it made me wonder...

Do you know of anyone that this has actually happend to? If so what cause of action could be taken?





http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Sky-News-Undercover-Laptop-Investigation-Repair-Shops-Caught-Hacking-Into-Personal-Files/Article/200907315343387?lpos=UK_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15343387_Sky_News_Undercover_Laptop_Investigation%3A_Repair_Shops_Caught_Hacking_Into_Personal_Files]Link Edit

[Salmon Trout]

Gary Glitter is an awful warning... I have read stories of Geek Squad workers laughing at, copying and sharing the *censored* that they discover.

[rssc]

I just couldnt imagine someone Im paying to fix my computer (not that I would) to go looking through all my personal files.

But most customers that arent that clued up and would infact leave account details for online banking etc...

Pretty scary

[Salmon Trout]

I just couldnt imagine someone Im paying to fix my computer (not that I would) to go looking through all my personal files.

I can very easily imagine it.

[BC_Programmer]

All I can say is thank goodness I can fix my PCs myself! 

[jerryheavyarms]

All I can say is thank goodness I can fix my PCs myself! 

Yeah, that's a relief..

[Computer Hope Admin]

I could easily see people doing this. Could really be scary if you think about it since you could easily gain access to passwords used for sites such as banks.  Something to definately think about when sending a computer in for repair.

When working at a computer company myself I had co-workers who looked through images and we even encountered a few computers with child porn and reported the owners of the computer to the authorities. In that situation I guess it was good, but personally I don't think hunting through personal data or looking through pictures is right.

Another good reason to try to resolve the computer issues yourself I guess.

[alexK]

I have keep ALL personal and critical data on a Jump Stick, and clear ALL history on the PC after doing my banking and surfing. I assume that is as good as I can get it. Of course that "clearing" cannot be done in the middle of a crash, in that case the repairshop may end up with some free and interesting data.
It would be funny to get a customer in the store, complaining "My PC crashed during a visit to a Porn site", Ha Ha!

 

[rssc]

I could easily see people doing this. Could really be scary if you think about it since you could easily gain access to passwords used for sites such as banks.  Something to definately think about when sending a computer in for repair.

When working at a computer company myself I had co-workers who looked through images and we even encountered a few computers with child porn and reported the owners of the computer to the authorities. In that situation I guess it was good, but personally I don't think hunting through personal data or looking through pictures is right.

Another good reason to try to resolve the computer issues yourself I guess.

So what would you do after this?, would you fix the customers computer and pretend you didnt find anything? or did the authorities just take the problem away from you?

[Computer Hope Admin]

So what would you do after this?, would you fix the customers computer and pretend you didnt find anything? or did the authorities just take the problem away from you?

We'd still fix the issues since it was our job. Can't really say what exactly happened since we'd just report to manager and he'd report to authorities.

[harry 48]

this has happened to a few people in britian and they ended up in court

[computeruler]

I saw a youtube video were people were recording the screen just to see and they had a folder with some pr0n and they copied it to their flash drive