The Star Tribune reports a woman is suing Best Buy for $50,000 after the Best Buy/Geek Squad repair service stole her naked photos from her computer, shared them with other Geek Squad agents, and even copied them onto the hard drives of other customers (this is hardly the first time Geek Squad has been caught stealing porn from customer’s computers). William E. Giffels admitted in a written statement that he copied Kaylee Hall’s nude photos from her computer onto his personal flash drive. On this drive, he also kept the most up-to-date version of the Geek Squad diagnostic tools and told other agents to copy from it. Then other Geek Squad made CD copies of the drive and installed the tools, along with Kaylee’s photos, onto other customers’ computers in the Traverse City, Michigan area. Inside, Giffels’s written confession…
Once again, the lesson is to keep a separate hard drive just for stuff you don’t want people in the repair shop to see.
Geek Squad: A matter of trust [Star Tribune]
More From Consumerist
-
Man Accused Of Illegally Downloading Porn Countersues For Defamation
-
Woman Sues Porn Companies For Threatening To Sue Her Over Alleged Illegal Downloads
-
Judge Sides With Comcast Against “Shakedown” Porn Lawyers
-
Mom Sues RadioShack Because 13-Year-Old Daughter’s “New” Phone Shouldn’t Be Full Of Porn
-
Man Sues Strip Club Over Mysterious $50,000 Credit Card Bill
@tcp100: Truecrypt rocks. Seriously, I keep all my sensitive data in a truecrypt partition. I’ve never had one go corrupt, after 2+ years.
How was this dude persuaded to write such a detailed confession? Was it to cop a plea or something?
This thread is worthless without pictures…
@kabuk1: I’m personally of the mind that they shouldn’t be snooping around no matter what sensitive data you have on your drive. But I understand that people should take steps to remove/encrypt that data to prevent things like this.
However, if you bothered to RTFA, you’d see that she thought all the pictures (intended for her longtime boyfriend) had been deleted. But…blame the victim!
I’ve been a GS Agent for five months and the guy who wrote the confession is burned for violating at least two policies in Best Buy that have been around for AT LEAST as long as I’ve worked there:
1. We AREN’T authorized to take our own recording material (flash drives, memory cards, floppies, CDs) into the store. There is no justifiable reason for those devices to ever be needed in-precinct.
2. NOTHING from the customer’s property gets saved to Precinct hardware unless no other option is available – and even then the saved data is to be wiped immediately after the backup has been sucessfully completed to the customer’s alternate media.
Oh yeah, one last reason he’s toast… The “Tools CD” used by Geek Squad is a copyrighted proprietary tool that is not authorized to leave the precinct. So why was it on his personal flash drive that he takes home every night?
No matter how many rules Best Buy could lay down, they ultimately have to trust their employees at some point and this guy obviously didn’t give a damn about rules.
I’m just going to point out that no matter where you take your computer, it’s possible that someone will take some porn off of it. This is not a Geek Squad exclusive issue. However, it’s good to see that someone is attempting to make a statement about this issue. Taking anything off of someone else’s computer, no matter if it’s something as somewhat trivial as a naked photo, is stealing privet information. Employees should know that this is something that they could and should get fired over, with possible charges being filed against them.
I’m part of the Geek Squad, and I have been working at Best Buy for a year and a half, it has been stressed many times that things like this are not only not appropriate, but could potentially lead to a lawsuit, as well as termination. There has never been a moment where it has not been clear, so let this be a lesson NOT JUST to other Geek Squad employees, but EVERYONE who works with computers. Be it Firedog, or Mom and Pop computer stores. Because as I said, this issue is not exclusive to Geek Squad.
@SacraBos:
What more do you want Best Buy to do? I work there, and I get to suffer through all the added processes, paperwork, and complication implemented after the first customer data shitstorm.
For starters, this Timmy isn’t even supposed to be using his own flash drive. Each store is provided four flash drives that are monitored and checked in/out with LP. If you’re caught using your own drive, it’s bad times for you.
Second of all, I guess the only way Best Buy could “take things very seriously” would be to put Las Vegas style cameras over every tech station with a fleet of people behind the camera watching. Again, what do you suggest they do?
Think rationally for a second. Your data is actually SAFER at Best Buy because at least they actually have a privacy protection procedure in place (at least, since consumerist’s first report they have) whereas the smaller computer stores have nothing.
If Consumerist did their little sting operation on 100 Best Buys and 100 indie shops, I guarantee you’ll find more problems at the indie shops than at the Best Buys. Unfortunately, we catch more flack because we’re the big guy, and big companies are automatically “evil” or something.
Can we remove this statement:
(this is hardly the first time Geek Squad has been caught stealing porn from customer’s computers).
Or change it…..
this is hardly the first time a computer repair center has been caught stealing porn from customer’s computers.
This porn stealing is not just a Greek Squad problem, it is a problem with many computer repair centers. One could even say “most” repair centers.
And it ain’t just porn that is being stolen.
@StevenJohn: “This porn stealing is not just a Greek Squad problem…”
Those darned kids in their college fraternities! Or did you mean a different Greek Squad?
Would you give a camera repair shop your digital camera full of pictures of your naughty bits?
Would you send off a calculator or device to be repaired that stored all of your past years financial information including bank account numbers?
I’m not angry at the woman and not passing judgement on her lawsuit. That doesn’t mean she still isn’t a complete moron.
This post is useless without photos.
Forget the copying of naked pictures. I am more disturbed to find out that the diagnostic tools Geek Squad use amounts to few programs on a flash drive. For the amount they charge your computer should be hooked up to a super computer that is linked to NASA.
I’ve got programs on my flash drive too. Probably the same ones Geek Squad uses.
I work for a small shop out of Millvale (5 minutes from Pittsburgh) and copying customer data would be the KISS of Death (and Lawsuits) that I don’t wish to ever have to deal with even if it was pr0n. I surprised she found out, but they might have ended up on the intertubes.
@StevenJohn: Let me guess, you work for Best Buy/Geek Squad.
Why the hell should Ben remove that statement? Its perfectly valid.
You show proof of other major computer repair places doing it, and I’m sure Ben will give that just as much attention.
@graffiksguru: Don’t you read this site?
[consumerist.com]
I also remember another story not too long ago, on this very site talking about Staples tech team, and I think Dells tech team doing it as well.
@Ghosx: Well, obviously they didn’t do enough for this lady. It wasn’t just Timmy, but sounds like the whole shop got a little eyeful.
And just because your assertion that my data is safer at BB than other shops – well, what can I say but that in this case it’s a valueless argument.
So, some of the other “agents” knew the pics were on the CD, and did nothing about it? Sounds like a bit more disciplining is in order.
I wonder how she found out. Somehow, I doubt the Best Buy people called to tell her what happened. Could be by chance the photos ended up on a computer of someone she knows.
Can you imagine getting your computer fixed and when you get it back finding nearly naked pictures of your coworker or employee or employer or neighbor on it. That would be a surprise. And then having to call and say Hi, I have naked pictures of you on my computer.
I can see how this would be a huge embarrassment to this woman. I think she should be compensated for that.
Holy Bumsquat Batman!
The first thing this woman should do is fire her idiot lawyer who filed this $50,000 lawsuit and hire one who knows copyright law.
The 2nd thing she should do is register all the photos with the copyright office she thinks she had on the HD. If you’re going to claim a copyright violation, the work must be registered prior to the lawsuit being filed.
Corporate America, the MAFIAA et all wanted copyright infringement damages to be as high as $150,000 PER violation, well, that’s exactly what she should ask the court for per each photo copied. That very same law applies to her too you know!
Third, her lawyer should have the court seize every flash drive, server and tools CD during the discovery phase in use by that Best Buy location and add up the number of illegally copied photos and multiply that figure by $150,000.
Only $50,000?? Yeesh! That’s what I’d tip the wait staff at the victory dinner after winning this suit!
Here is why we “search” for picture files: because not every customer has all their photos neatly labeled in a folder called “all my pics are in here” and when you do a data backup for pics, you need to find them all. same goes for documents. We then need to break up these huge chunks of data into 4GB chunks to burn DVDs to give back to customers. I am so tired of GS bashing because, at least in the precinct I run, we can find our own porn, thank you. Believe me, I would rather not see the disgusting smut people have on their computers because then I wouldn’t throw up a little when I see them again to give their unit back.
This agent was a bad apple and I can assure you that none of us who take our job seriously and our customers’ privacy seriously are thrilled with this Timmy.
I’ve had the opportunity to back up music collections that I could have copied in a matter of minutes, but didn’t because I know right from wrong. It’s lame that I, and my team of talented agents, can be marred by this asshat.
We have happy customers every day. The OP has absolute grounds to be furious and litigious. I would probably do the same. The amount seems fair, and shows to me the OP is reasonable and seeking fair compensation for the intrusion and embarrassment.
Disappointing…
^ what he posted is one problem with people today.
The main problem in this post is not about Geek Squad and data alone. It’s about being able to trust ANYONE with ANYTHING. Such as maids who steal money while cleaning.
@sisedi: 15-year-olds aren’t allowed to have bare backs at any time, even in the shower? Is that the point?
I don’t get all this computer repair going on. Either I’ve been lucky or Dell’s really are pretty good because I’ve never had to have my computer repaired. I messed up a computer once and had to wipe my hard drive and reinstall XP to get everything working again, but I found instructions online and did it myself. Then again, I’ve never owned a laptop so maybe desktops are more hardier and don’t break as often.
I’m curious, what what type of repair work do people generally need performed?
@Lambasted: Honestly? Virus removal and Data Backups are the most common thing for my store. The reason for the needed backup is everything from the motherboard going out, the OS getting corrupted, and physical damage to the computer. Rarely do the customers know where exactly the files are located, nor are they always in the same folder.
I honestly think that computer science should be taught in normal schools, like we have English, math, then computer science (or common sense even) followed by PE. Granted, folk like me would need to find a new job, but these things are becoming more and more necessary on a daily basis, it’s foolish to think that everyone knows how to use them, or even knows how to use them well. Why shouldn’t the government and the schools try to encourage more education for computers beyond that of word processing and spreadsheets?
I think it’s about time for Geek Squad to clean house. They need to fire every current employee in the United States and start training an ace team of smiley grandmas in tech support. Not only will they fix your computer, they’ll also give you a fresh-baked cookie… and the customer service will be outstanding.
YaYaSquad, to the BestBuyMobile!
@graffiksguru:
Nope, don’t work for BestBuy.
As close as I have come to working in a consumer electronics store is the few weekends I helped a friend in his mom & pop stereo store back in the early 80′s.
But I know all about seeking p_rn off of people’s private sources. Back when I was in college every drooling idiot without a girlfriend wanted to work at the photo developing lab as it was an excellent source of great photos. In fact there were always compies of somebody’s private photos floating around the dorms.
Bottom line, sneaking pics is not something new and it sure as hell ain’t exclusive to the Geek Squad at BB.
@Imaginary_Friend: my store gave fresh-baked cookies to people waiting in line this weekend! the constant smell of cookie drove me nuts… @Lambasted: at my store, we see a lot of laptop failures, like bad HDD, bad RAM, bad MOBO… we also see a lot of virus/trojan issues, esp. virtumonde and zlob, and mostly on units that have limewire.
we also see a lot of fried modems/power supplies due to power surge.
people posting here are already miles ahead of most customers who don’t know what RAM is or how to back up files. it seems simple to you folks, but 90% of our customers simply don’t have that knowledge.
@Part-Time-Viking
@wellfleet
Wow, heck of a lot of hardware failures. I guess I never thought about my hardware going bad. But I am not surprised laptops see a lot of service; they seem so temperamental. I suppose they do get banged up a bit with people carrying them around as opposed to a desktop that just sits there.
You guys are right about the percentage of people who don’t know a thing about computers. I didn’t think about that. If I wasn’t around my father would need your services. He doesn’t have a clue how to do the simplest thing. I can’t even turn on full blocking on his firewall because he doesn’t know how to allow access. It blocked Firefox once and he was lost. Poor thing had to wait until I showed up to click “Allow”.
Yep, I fully get the need computer services now. And I fully get why they cost so much. It’s not hard to charge people an arm and a leg when they are between a rock and a hard place. Hmmm….I am not sure how I feel about that.
What if one of these people posted her pictures on the internet and she got fired because her boss saw them? She should have sued them for much more.
@Lambasted: I won’t pretend to act like the services are reasonably priced. The fact that we charge $130 bucks for OS install astounds and repulses me. But there are folk out there that are so clueless about this stuff that they’d prefer to fork over that kind of cash to not worry about it. More often than not, I feel that we should change the slogan to “Let us deal with it so you don’t have to”.
@wellfleet: To all those asking why people need to use GS… Limewire is the WORST! At our precinct I would guess 80% of the new laptops returned for OS service within a couple of weeks of being sold have Limewire installed on them by the clients. The sad part is we can’t tell the clients that Limewire is causing the problem because it usually is some file that came down through Limewire that actually is the issue.
And before a flurry of posts come in saying “I use Limewire with no problems”, let me say, “I believe you, but count yourself lucky.” I get to deal with the carnage on a weekly basis.
@wellfleet: Well, that’s encouraging! Now start training those grandmas.
“reputationally” = reputably.
People pay money to this man?
@Lambasted: I’m not sure is this is thinly veiled sarcasm or what… but… we spend a lot of time on most units that are checked in, and we do our best to check the work through several agents. I don’t think we charge too much for the agents’ knowledge and time, I guess it’s all relative. Plenty of people know how to clean and cook, but plenty of them go out to eat instead and pay a service to clean their house.
I don’t get it. I don’t force anyone to use our services and lord knows we do way too much free work as it is. Customers have the choice to open the phone book and look for alternatives and I’m fine with that.
We are direct about our pricing beforehand, it’s a flat rate, not by the hour, tax-free, and guaranteed for 90 days. If you don’t want the service, that’s ok.
Creep Squad!!!
how gross….
Incidentally… the one encounter I’ve had with the Geek Squad was far from cliche. The Geek that came to my grandmother’s house was HOT and not socially awkward or creepy in the least.
Isn’t stealing personal files off a computer you are entrusted with theft? I wonder why she hasn’t sought to have the police arrest him / file charges?
Sounds to me like we need video surveillance of all GeekSquad work bay areas, and customers should have the right to review them and get a copy in case anything like this happens…
Only when I see the photos will I know if my own hardware will be affected.
If this guy works on the Geek Squad, how could he have not realized the photos were deleted? Aren’t you paid to know how to delete things? But even so, you shouldn’t steal other peoples pictures in the first place, perv.
@BeccaThePromoMami: I’ve seen that video.
One more lesson, is to never go to geek squad for any repair. Try to do it yourself if you can.