Giving your computer to BB waives your right against search/seizure, right? Otherwise, this perv may get off scot-free...

Geek Squad is still good for something. (Since they are no good at repairs!)

@Aussie-Evil: Pretty much.

Geez, you'd think that before he hands his computer over he'd bother to sweep the hard drive clean (no pun intended, hahaha)

@Aussie-Evil: BB isn't police.

Did the BB employees actually view over 800 images? I hope that is poor wording on the part of the news writer.

I know of at least two teachers I had growing up that were arrested for molesting kids. They always go to where the fish are. I wonder what kind of background check they did on this guy.

As bad as it sounds, I bet some of those pictures ended up with at least 1 of the Geek Squad employess.

Seems to me it's kinda like bringing your car in for repair while having a leaky stiff in the trunk. It's stupid, and the warrantless search that occurs when the mechanic finds the body probably ain't gonna get tossed...

Best Buy employees aren't really covered by the search-and-seizure provisions of the Constitution. If you're dumb enough to leave your kiddie porn on your computer (and evil enough to have it in the first place), you deserve whatever happens next.

Kudos to the BB employees for turning this guy in. For all they knew, the abuse of the kids was ongoing, and bringing it to the attention of the police might have put a stop to it. Child porn prosecutions often go beyond mere possession of pictures.

So it is confirmed that bestbuy WILL snoop around your computer when you leave it with them for repairing. That's very comforting for people who file taxes and store other personal stuff on their computers!

I wonder if they copied it before they turned it over to the police?

@DallasDMD: Ew. That makes me see the Geek Squad as no better than Mr. Janior here.

This is why you always title your porn file "Accounting Records."

Seriously, the Geek Squad did the right thing. With that file name, they were undoubtedly suspicious -- and for good reason.

I work for the Geek Squad. My only comment is that we do not go looking for child porn. Depending on the service being done, we hardly ever go into personal files. If we DO come across child porn, we mention it to our manager ONLY. They then notify the police.

Isn't this akin to people at the photo-mat who turn people in for kiddie porn when it's their grandkids? Or the people stupid enough to take pictures of their baby on a blanket with a pile of weed.

@picardia: They probably did a search for image files. I once brought my laptop into a independent place, and made all of the files invisible. Guy did a search and ragged me about it when I picked it up. He did compliment my choice of the picture I used for the jigsaw puzzle.

@picardia: So you'd go clicking on a folder that says XXXYOUNG out of curiosity?

I'd avoid it, especially when it comes time to explain to the authorities and my boss why I was purposefully looking at such a folder.

@GitEmSteveDave: I sure hope so. The Consumerist did a "sting" operation several months ago and recorded Geeksquad employees copying some provocatively named folders off of the 'honey pot' PC onto a USB drive.

The employees might be perverts themselves.

Geek squad don't care about your accounting information. They want your pr0nz and your w4r3z.

I'm glad they caught the guy but I'm torn. I hope they chop his balls and dick off with a rusty knife then put salt on the wound. BUT computer repair teams should dictate a privacy rule saying that you will not look at the data in the guy's computer.

Unless the shit was all over his desktop of course. Then he's just asking for it.

@zibby: Maybe not for a dead guy, but the defense would clearly go for the "images were planted" avenue.

I used to freelance for a while repairing computers. I didn't make a lot of money at it, but the thought of extorting large fees in exchange for me not tipping the cops off about kiddie porn I planted, er, found on their machine did cross my mind.

I applaud that a child porn viewer was arrested. However, anyone else worried about the laws being passed that are hailed as "necessary to catch predators", but merely allow the gov't to monitor your web viewing, emails, hard drive content, travel destinations, etc...etc... Seems like we are giving up a lot of rights to catch a few hundred sick people. Wondering if the cost is worth the payoff (and yes, I am very much pro rights, and anti big government).

"Best Buy's Geek Squad tech repair service helped bust a middle-school custodian for having child porn on his hard-drive.".....yet was unable to fix the man's computer.

@tmccartney: Best Buy employees aren't really covered by the search-and-seizure provisions of the Constitution.

I concur. I think it is that the Child-Porn Laws actually require an individual (ergo, employee or corporate entity in this case) to report child porn or child abuse to the police when discovered "in any form".

i'm not a lawyer so i'm just thinking here, but if the BB techs called the cops, could the cops not use this evidence as grounds for a search warrant? then search his house? i'm guessing the guy had/has a lot more of that stuff at home. since i assume that his expectation of privacy is 0 when he gives the computer to BB, i can see that evidence being admissible, if it is admissible then getting a warrant for his residence should be fairly easy. i think the images could certainly show probable cause. again i'm not a lawyer, just thinking out loud.

Photo labs (remember those?) are supposed to report such things as well.

I'm glad they turned him in, but I'm disappointed if the employees really did view so many of the images. There's something to be said for keeping your mind free of such things.

@picardia: Aww you're giving away the secret! ;)

Anyone who brings their computer to Geek Squad probably doesn't have enough knowledge to know how to back up these files to another location.

@IrisMR: And others: There's nothing in the news story to suggest that he molested any kids. Anyone suggesting violence against someone who has screwed-up sexual desires, but who hasn't acted on those desires beyond looking at pictures, is a bit out of line.

@Saboth: Not a few hundred sick people. More like a few thousand. With the number of burgeoning pedophiles, child porn lovers, molesters and not to mention those who fall through the cracks by being "productive" members of society who have normal jobs and no criminal record, there are a lot of people out there who are just a-ok with something so disgusting. It's not just about the people on the internet who look at photos, it's about the people who hang around schools and playgrounds, and people who solicit young children. These people are largely undocumented, and even those who are released, registered in databases and are kept away from children still have access to innocuous items such as magazines and books, and can still live in whatever fantasies they remember about their 'past life' before being caught. Many of these people are not cured - they're just released for good behavior while in prison.

That store is about a mile from my moms house.

I cannot believe that any of you are saluting Best Buy employees for this. I am not condoning the behavior of the pedophile, but if someone from Best Buy finds your personal records and steals someone's identity, you would be singing a different tune. They should just do their job and not snoop through your files. Let's not pretend that they are upstanding citizens.

The story left out one part.

"Employees first viewed and COPIED FOR PERSONAL use all 800 photos before turning them over to police"

Fixed that.

Read the article, people! "In August 2007, the Washington County Sheriff's Office received reports that a hard drive sent to the Best Buy Geek Squad in Maplewood for data recovery contained child pornography." He specifically asked them to inspect his hard drive and recover data from it. While doing that, they found a directory named "XXXyoungs". In this case, there was every reason to expect they would actually have to examine the hard drive in question. Otherwise, how would they be able to determine they had actually recovered the information as he had instructed them?

As for the legality of the search, the laws about search warrants only apply to agents of the government, not to corporations. You can still sue them in civil court, but that doesn't affect whether the information they gathered can be used in criminal court. As long as the police followed the rules, the evidence will be admitted. In this case, the article states that based on the evidence presented by Best Buy, they obtained a warrant to gather more evidence. The police, acting on information and evidence obtained from a private citizen, obtained a search warrant in order to uncover evidence. That's the way it is supposed to work.

Now if the police ever asked Best Buy(Or any computer repair shop) to search a computer, they would then be acting as an agent of the state, making them subject to the same rules as police officers. But as long as they are acting in their own interests(Repairing a computer, looking for free porn, or whatever), evidence found by computer techs can still be used in criminal court.

@JD: Not to mention this creates a demand for the creation of such porn. This is also about the victims.

Well now that it confirms that Best Buy employees snoop in computers while they're under repair, I will never buy a computer from them.

Before calling the cops, I'm sure the BB employees posted their findings on miscellaneous message boards for the peanut gallery to ridicule.

I think we can all agree that exploitation of children is wrong, but the BB employees aren't exactly saints here. As noted in previous Consumerist stories, they're snooping hard drives for movies, music, pics, and whatever else. It would really suck if they copied all those DRM-free Amazon and itunes music you bought, and then posted them on P2P networks. Because those files do contain some meta data about you, and you might find yourself on the receiving end of a RIAA lawsuit.

@NOQUARTER: A child must be abused in order for this guy to have the pictures in the first place. There is absolutely no use for these kind of people in society.

@GothamGal:

Very true. My computer contains my passwords for financial accounts, quicken data, business information. I would have to be crazy to give my computer to these people for repair.

The answer is to backup important data and consider the computer disposable if you can't repair it yourself.

Long post just got eaten, so I'll do a short one. Most of you condemning Best Buy seems to have missed something in the article:

"In August 2007, the Washington County Sheriff's Office received reports that a hard drive sent to the Best Buy Geek Squad in Maplewood for data recovery contained child pornography."

He brought the hard drive in specifically for them to try to recover files from it. You can argue about whether they normally look through files, but in this case, that's essentially what he was asking them to do. While recovering information from the hard drive, they saw a folder name that made them suspicious. If I saw "XXXyoungs" on a computer folder, I think I might suspect something there also. I can't really find any fault with their behavior in this situation.

And no matter how unethical the actions of the Geek Squad may be, it doesn't change whether the evidence they obtained can be used in a court of law. That is determined by the actions of the police after they receive the report of the evidence. If they don't follow procedure at that point, the evidence can be thrown out.

Grr, double post :(

This might be a stupid legal question, but isn't it illegal to view that stuff, not just own it?

In other words, once you've determined that there may be illegal material on the drive (e.g., from the filename), wouldn't actually opening it be a criminal offense?

Indeed; who are these people who give their things to others and don't expect them to be trifled through with a fine toothed comb?

This proves only two things to me:
1) People can be arrested even if the evidence is not obtained by police with a warrant for the search (I want to hear from a police officer near me that the discovery of something illegal on my computer negates any "rights" against warrantless search & seizure I may hold).
2) Best Buy still isn't doing their job and is still looking for porn rather than what he's supposed to be doing? Why do I say this, XXXYOUNGS could easily refer to "teens" (aka, the so-called "Barely Legal" porn sites). Also, it's also the fact that it was... in a Folder. What does this mean? The Tech deliberately opened the folder obviously in search of pornography and instead discovered Child Porn much to his chagrin because it meant he couldn't legally keep it. "Geek Squad employees viewed over 800 pictures"? Who are the true perverts here...

@uricmu: Exhibition and/or Possession of Child Pornography is considered a federal offense if I am not mistaken. I know for a fact it's a felony.

Remember, Best Buy, possession is nine tenths of the law >.>
I mean seriously, why can't they ever bust big businesses for possesion?

@uricmu: A filename is not a crime. If I created a subdirectory on my computer called "XXX_kiddie_porn" and put a file in there called "kiddie_sex.jpg", how do you know that it's actually what the file name states? Maybe I have a picture of a Kiddie (tm) brand fire extinguisher in a compromising position. You going to call the cops on me based just on a filename?

@Papa Midnight:

You also have to ask yourself, what would happen if a Geek squad employee placed pornography on a computer in for repair. Say, someone he didn't like for some reason?

@FreemanB: There was an interesting Law & Order SVU episode that illustrates your point.

It involved a girl breaking and entering to find a piece of evidence against someone else. Had she done it on her own, the evidence would have been admissible (although she might be subject to criminal charges for the breaking and entering). However she was under the false believe that a police detective told her to do so (he had told her to "bring in what she could find" but he didn't tell her to break and enter to get it. It was, however, thrown out.

Until the defense attorney asked his client a question under oath and the defendant's answer contradicted the piece of evidence in question (which was a journal that he kept). Because his counsel opened the door, the evidence became admissible again.

I know I'll get flamed for using a fictional example but I was so interested in the legalities on this particular episode that I had a lengthy discussion with an attorney friend about it, and it's pretty close to reality.

So, unless a cop asks you to snoop, if you find something in the course of your normal actions, the evidence is fair game.

I equate this to MSNBC and their "To Catch a Predator" show. I have been torn on the whole idea of the show for a while (I'm strangely addicted to it yet I thought for a long time it was some sort of entrapment). They may have a decoy pose as an underage piece of jail bait, but the pervert makes all the moves. At which point, even if the police weren't involved up to this point, it becomes valid evidence.

@joemono: I agree. Everyone who has thoughts that I find morally objectionable should be killed in the most painful way possible. They should also be held accountable for the actions of everyone who has similar thoughts. So maybe killed twice then.