UPDATE: Why We’re Not Telling Geek Squad CEO Which Agent Stole The Porn
To investigate claims by current and former Geek Squad techies (see “The 10 Page Geek Squad Confession – “Stealing Customers’ Nudie Pics Was An Easter Egg Hunt“), we loaded a computer with porn and rigged it to make a video of itself. We captured every cursor movement, every program opened, every file accessed. Everything that the user saw and did, we recorded.
We took it to less than a dozen Best Buy Geek Squads and asked them to perform simple tasks, like installing iTunes. Most places were fine, sometimes doing the job right on the counter, sometimes even for free.
Then we caught one well-seasoned Geek Squad Agent copying personal and pornographic images and video from our computer to his company-issued thumb drive (see video above, or the logfiles).
Reached for comment, Geek Squad CEO Robert Stephens expressed desire to launch an internal investigation and said, “If this is true, it’s an isolated incident and grounds for termination of the Agent involved.”
This is not just an isolated incident, according to reports from Geek Squad insiders alleging that Geek Squad techs are stealing porn, images, and music from customer’s computers in California, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere. Our sources say that some Geek Squad locations have a common computer set up where everyone dumps their plunder to share with the other technicians.
If our techie readers were right about the Geek Squad doing this, then perhaps they’re right in saying it happens at other computer repair places as well.
And by the time your computer breaks, it’s too late to hide anything you wouldn’t want someone to find, and steal for their own purposes. It might not just be the photos and videos you got online, but also the ones you made with your partner for intimate purposes. Or it could be passwords, credit card information, bank accounts. The only thing stopping a potential peeping tom is the bounds of their curiosity, and how much and how secure is the information you keep on your computer.
We advise encrypting sensitive files in advance with a program like TrueCrypt (WIN) or making an encrypted disk image (MAC, be sure to skip step 6). Or, keep it all on an external hard drive and/or zip all the files and password protect them.
Who knew that when you hand over your computer to a repair technician, you could be giving a stranger a veritable Pandora’s box?
NEXT: How To Make Your Computer Catch People Stealing Your Porns
PREVIOUSLY:
Geek Squad Confession: “Stealing Customers’ Nudie Pics Was An Easter Egg Hunt”
We’re Always Looking For Porn On Customer’s Computers, Techies Confirm
(Photo: mreraser)
Here are some hi-rez screenshots. We wish the video was this quality but it ended up having to go through multiple levels of compression.
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Here’s my only gripe about the video. You show just a video of the screen itself. Geek squad’s tools are easily downloadable through P2P networking. If you wanted this to be a little more believeable, you’d include a video of the technician actually DOING the work, not just “someone” controlling a screen. It could EASILY be you running the show at the keyboard.
Here is the thing – you want someone you can trust, you do not go to geek squad!! I know this because I learned it on the Consumerist!
What gives the GS the right to go through your personal files if you asked them to do a simple install?
It would interesting to hear from the higher ups; infact consumerist should confront the tech who copy the porn with the video; all on tape of course.
You missed the most important part of the video! Ben’s girlfriend’s bikini photo shows that Ben has snared the most elusive of women… One with a white woman’s body, and a black block head.
I keep my adult materials in plain sight (C:Adult) not real hard to find, but not the desktop. That’s just an invitation for snooping, be it a repair guy or girlfriend, etc. Anything softcore is right there for anyone who wants to see a nice cameltoe on Claire Danes etc, and the raunchier stuff you don’t want kids finding is packed under heavy encryption. There’s really no point in trying to hide porn, everyone has some, everyone knows YOU have some, but there’s no reason to make it easy to access.
I’m surprised by the number of “no foul” or “what’s the big deal” that I see here.
As a computer tech myself of many yaers, I see no reason that a computer tech has any more right to go through your files than a car mechanic has to go through your glove compartment, unless he is working in there.
*yawn*
Maybe it’s because I’m a computer tech, this doesn’t surprise me. When I was younger and had slightly flexible morals I’d copy stuff off people’s machines all the time. Now that I’m a little older I’ve decided against it, but face it: Give the average 19 year old the chance to copy off some booby pics, videos, and some music and they’ll most likely take it.
I’m actually rather surprised that ALL he did was grab the desktop/my doc folders. I’ve been around when techs have turned machines inside out to get at anything they could. Oh. Wait. I used to.
1. Okay, this is catty, but those girls are fugly.
2. I have quite a few friends that have worked in photo labs, and I thought it was common knowledge that if you brought in dirty pics (or just pics with hot girls/guys in them), they’d make a double and put it in the goody drawer. I think this is about the same.
What a lame investigation. Next time catch ‘em stealing bank account info or something. And use better looking wallpaper.
Several are missing the underlying point – to hell with the subject matter, they have no rights to help themselves to anything on your system. They’re entrusted and supposed to be doing a professional job; you know, things like reattaching a loose cable and suggesting unnecessary upgrades. They’re not to be taking anything, even if their little geek willies tell them otherwise.
Ben, thanks for doing this. I don’t find it earth-shattering, or corrupt-company-busting, but it surely does function as excellent evidence that some technicians fish for and/or steal private material in computers brought into some computer repair shops. Which, of course, is totally not OK. For its purposes, it’s a classic cautionary video. I hope it reduces the frequency of this practice, and also prompts consumers to be more aware of the myriad potential compromises to privacy that exist in the computer/internet age.
I would add a question to Robert Stephens, who gives lip service to wanting feedback: You immediately conclude “it’s an isolated incident.” How in the world could you possibly know that? (Are you God?) Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. How many computers have had porn copied off of them at Geek Squad workstations that weren’t subjected to a Consumerist sting? That figure could be none…or thousands…or millions. All things being equal, if techs took the bait even 1 out of 12 times, I’d guess it’s happening an awful, awful lot. Stephens’ statement impresses me as a knee-jerk PR statement, as opposed to a thoughtful or honest statement. An honest statement would be: “We hope it’s an isolated incident, but we don’t presently know, while we are working on finding out.” And note that honest statements, not knee-jerk PR statements, earn customers’ trust.
Hah! Good luck finding a flash drive large enough to hold all my porn, suckers!
I’d like to see a copy of whatever you signed when you dropped-off the computer (including all the fine print). These days, companies are so concerned about their liability when handling customer-owned equipment, I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually consented to something like this by signing their service agreement.
Great Video. What software is typically used to capture this in video rather than just a keystroke log.
I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that he hijacked the images, or that Best Buy charges $29.99 to intsall iTunes!
You know, Ben, you should have done this with gay porn. Just to see his eyes pop when he found the folder.
This is hardly suprising, but hopefully someone will find it useful.
I’m more interested in watching how Best Buy will react.
This story is positively despicable – but not on the part of Geek Squad or Best Buy.
Consumerist – why don’t you try a little honesty in your reporting. It took you THREE months and how many repairs before you finally nabbed one guy who you claim is acting improperly. You should be ashamed of yourselves – this is sensationalist nonsense that I wouldn’t put past the likes of FOX News or Hardcopy.
The report sheet made me laugh out loud.
“recomend memery upgrade”
@PTWhipplebang:
that’s exactly what i was thinking!! as a matter of fact, i just downloaded itunes to my PC @ work today FOR FREE!!
shame on you GEEK SQUAD! and shame on you for stealing pix.
@Amsterdaam:
@bluemeep:
ewwwwwww. i just got it.
This looks to me to be entrapment on the part of the consumerist hit squad. Far from it being something that I would worry about, as a “consumer”, I think it would be more damning on the deviant “reporter” trying to discredit the Geek Squad or perhaps to strike a blow against the mega-big-box-store (capatilist?) evil-doers!
It could be straight up and I’d think that it’s more than believable – but hey they EXPECTED this stuff to happen, they set the bait IN PLAIN SIGHT and what happened? One in twelve took the bait?
It’s more telling that the consumerist made up this big hit piece for which they have a modicum of creedence and all they have to show for it is this video. What does this prove?
A young guy/gal finds some pictures and copies them? Were they copyrighted? Ownership is implied, yes, but it was bait and they knew that it was and made it more of an entrapment issue than a wrongdoing one in my opinion.
Shame on the consumerist!
@XENOBIOLOGISTA: I just saw Aoshima’s “City Glow” today. I sat through it twice. It was amazing.
Forget the video, $30 to install ITunes? Jesus christ
You pay seven dolla, you get 7 dolla.
Don’t know what you all expect from a bunch of pimply faced highschoolers who hate their McComputerJob, but it should be something along the lines of “very fucking little”
There are alternatives, often cheaper ones.
I think this is a classic case of computer techies and companies (not to name names) taking advantage those they perceive to be ignorant. Most companies are aware of such questionable practices but do nothing to prevent it until complaints are filed.
Great post… I’m hoping this will empower people to get more involved with what’s going on period instead of just taking what they are served.
What did you use to capture the desktop?
@homerjay: It’s Nielsen, and Yes, we are.
Is that wrong? Should I have not done that?
The issue here is two-fold, but not very well explained in the video, the Consumerist report, or any of the comments.
First, the photos in question are personal. They are the property of the owner of the computer, not mere “porn”. It’s important to make that distinction, because the computer owner is also the COPYRIGHT owner if she took the photos herself, or has maintained control of the original image. Without starting a larger debate about the RIAA, etc., I simply point out that the Geek Squad tech has violated her copyright, and if he subsequently distributes the photos to the net (where they’ll be forever) the value of said photos is lost forever. The “porn” aspect of the photos makes for great headlines, and a tempting target for the tech, but the real issue is failure to respect copyright laws by a major corporation and its agents.
Second, although not expressly stated in the comments, reviewing all material contained on a hard drive is not invasion of privacy, even using some of the more interesting cases. Copying material to an external source for no valid reason, with no policy in place for the safe destruction of that data at the conclusion of service? That’s invasion of privacy.
This isn’t about one tech copying photos of bootleg porn or music, or even ALL techs. It’s about what happens when a customer is forced to potentially expose their personal information to a third party. Some of the commenters were professionals and did their job. This guy didn’t, and there’s no accountability. This report starts the dialogue to create accountability in the system. Firing one guy doesn’t eliminate the problem. Developing a policy to protect the customer’s privacy is good for business (and the share price).
None of this commentary is intended to be positive comments about Best Buy Inc., its policies, or its employees.
Fascinating to see how people interpret this post.
As stated, it is not just GS that is guilty of this, and if you have crap on your computer that you want to keep personal than figure out how to protect it – before you it breaks and you have to entrust it to someone else.
In the end, regardless of liability and privacy, it’s just skeevy. Who wants strangers looking at personal photos of boyfriends/girlfriends/lovers/family while they’re rooting around for naughty bits & free music?
Me. My tower has 2 harddrives and all my work files and personal data is mostly on the secondary drive, which I backup onto a external firewire drive. Were there ever a repair that I couldn’t perform myself I could just pull out the second drive. But really, there’s not much but work files and personal photos on there anyway. Why save porn? It’s not like there is any shortage of the stuff.
And speaking of liability: to the dude who suspects this is fake. You really think a major blogging company is going to make a claim like this and not have the physical evidence to back it up? Whether they need to show the minutia of the stunt is immaterial; no way they’re going to open themselves to that kind of liability just for the sake of traffic. You need to spend less time on the internet.
This is a great Blog – stick with your core competencies. Stop with the investigative reporting. Both this and the electricity undercover agent reminded me Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vault. Much ado about nothing. This is no more revealing than “catching” a waitress selling your Amex number from a dinner check. When you catch guys making and keeping dates with underage boys and girls then you have something worth reporting. These demean the great job this blog usually does.
Hell, You can copy all my porn (no kiddie porn here) and even copy some of my music if you want, just fix my machine and don’t report me to the RIAA.
^^^ Oh, help yourself to the porn and music but, please don’t steal my personal info.
1 in 12 agents copying the files hardly seems like an epidemic
He “stole” your porn? that’s odd, most people would just copy it. I hope they were able to recover their porn.
On an unrelated note: Looking at pictures/videos of naked ladies is not a perversion as some posters here seem to think.
@DCvision: I knew someone who worked for a computer repair place (not Geek Squad), and he found some kiddie porn on someone’s computer. If I’m recalling correctly, they were able to call the cops on the guy.
This was mentioned in the MaximumPC podcast…
Just so you guys know…
If I worked for Geek Squad I would probably have done the same thing. If you take your car to the garage for repairs, and you have a stack of porn in the back seat, I’m guessing the mechanic is going to look at it. If you are so feeble you don’t even know how to install I-tunes then the porn “hidden” on a desktop folder is open game. What’s the big deal anyway? It’s porn. How did YOU get it? Stolen and not paid for I would guess. What’s the difference? What’s the crime? If you are so concerned about private data, encrypt it, hide it, or keep it on a seperate drive. Just because one Geek out of 12 grabbed the porn off this box proves nothing to me I like the idea of unseating a card and seeing how much they charged. That’s a plan.
Just for the record, I believe the post title is misleading. Despite what the MPAA and RIAA might have brainwashed you into thinking, merely copying a file is not and never has been “stealing.” At the worst it’s copyright infringement and an invasion of privacy, but theft it is not. Correct me if I’m wrong.
….so you’ve uncovered that A) males likes boobs and B) people don’t stop misbehaving just because they’re at work.
bang up work.
To be honest if you read the other article talking about the downfall of geek squad. I worked as a tech for Future Shop (canadian version eventualy bought by best buy) The problem is most of the guys that they hire are of the high school menatality. I remember one day on my day off one of the other tech’s found some ones home photo’s. They then preceded to invite every sales person in the computer department to come and see. Its a sad state that lots of tech rooms are like this. I’ve even seen non-qualified techs working in the tech rooms in both bestbuy and futureshop
Xeni Jardin: Ben Popken at Consumerist writes: The Consumerist’s 3-month sting operation snared a Geek Squad technician stealing porn from our hard drive, and we’ve got the work-safe video and logfiles to prove it.
More Peep Squad action, this time the result of a sting operation by the Consumerist. After hearing from several Geek Squad techies that “stealing customers’ nudie pics was an easter egg hunt”, journalist Ben Popken loaded up a PC with porn and screen capture software and touted it around a dozen…
It’s hardly surprising that they do this kind of thing. It would make more sense to store that kind of content on removable media (external hard drive, CD-RW/DVD-RW, etc).
What’s really scary is that there are laws pending that would require computer techs to go looking for kiddie porn and other contraband on your PC. See [blogs.zdnet.com]
When I worked at (manufacturer name witheld) as a video camera technician a few years back, we had many instances where customers would bring in their cameras for repair that had tapes jammed in them. One such customer was an employee of the company (his wife, actually) who dropped off a camera for repair and made no comment about the tape inside.
As it turned out, the tape was an extremely graphic homemade sex tape of her and her husband, with him doing the “closeups” of her genitals, stripping, and coitus. No one copied the tape, but it was seen by everyone in the shop as the camera was hooked to a monitor to test it. However, I wouldn’t have been surpried if someone did later after the camera was repaired and shelved. Quite often cameras would come in with tapes similar to these. So this is not a big surprise that techs would copy something off a PC, this has been going on for many years, and is nothing new.
As an independent PC tech myself, I am often entrusted with my client’s computers and would not violate their trust by copying their personal information, be it credit card numbers or homemade porn. However, I would equate this to trusting your accountant with your personal information, such as your SSN. You need to know who you’re dealing with. Unfortunately, if you bring your PC to a mass market retailer, this is the kind of thing that will happen. Try to find someone you can trust to repair your PC if you don’t know how to do it yourself. Otherwise, caveat emptor!
Just to be fair,
Since we are talking about breaking geeksquad/bestbuy policy, how about this:
Consumerist emailed Robert Steven about an employee that copied files from customer’s computer. He was breaking the rules, right??
How about the one that installed the iTunes for free??
You mentioned that in one of the stores, you got it for free.
I know it’s againts policy to perform free service because of liability. My friend that used to work at geeksquad told me this.
You should mention that to Robert Steven as well.
After all, we are talking about employees that breaks policies/rules, right?
If you don’t report that as well, that I think your report isn’t fair.
I call bullshit on your video.
How do we know a geek squad employee was on the other end of that recording? All you have shown is that someone copied porn from one folder to another.
For all the evidence this video gives, it could be the commentator himself doing this.
I guess my biggest issue is that there isn’t -conclusive- evidence showing that someone in geek squad actually did this. No video of the check in, just a basic receipt, some sort of work order with scribble, and somehow it took THREE MONTHS to do all this, yet they only have one visit documented? Also, how do we know that they didn’t ASK to have files transferred for them? I’d assume if copy and pasting was so easy, the “agent” would be more than happy to help someone transfer files for them if they asked. Also, you show nothing of the supposed I-tunes installation.
Shame on this blog for not providing more evidence. If you took something like this to the legal system, they would want the full video, not just of your “sting”.
Me? I’d never let a total stranger near my computer, let alone install software on it. Well, I can say that being a software developer and computer hack myself.
I find the stuff about “kiddie porn” very troubling, however, because (a)there is no way to know how old the models are in most cases, and “Age of consent” varies from country to county, (b) alleged “kiddie porn” downloaded for free has no direct impact on the welfare of the exploited child, and (c) even if the models are all “of age”, a false accusation can still be devastating — you could loose custody of your children during the investigation, and who knows what would happen to them in foster care, where they are 3 times more likely to be abused than the general population. Perhaps it could even wreck marriages.
All due to some lowly-paid “Geek Squad” snoop who has not the brains nor the desire to think of the possible consequences of his actions if he turns out to be wrong. For snooping around which is not part of his job description in the first place!
Here’s something to do to the “Geek Squad” — create a Trojan Horse that appears to be a porn video. When they copy that and play it on their company computers, the Trojan Horse goes into action and exposes every file on their corporate computers to BitTorrent! Then we can download all their stolen porn and have a ball!
the real crime is that that porn sucked