Sad, but how does her car crash have anything to do with corruption at best buy? That was just a cheap attempt to appeal to our emotions.

P.S. - pics or it didn't happen (just kidding!)

Ahh yes.. The perverted world that the internet has raised and coddled into the ginormous (That's a word now!) elephant that exists today.
The digital age.. Pageant Queens, Porn Stars, Firefighters, Teachers, hopeful professionals graduating from college and even our beloved celebrities.... Nothing is safe if you partake in the digital world.

@tvh2k: See Dan Savage's column after Anna Nicole Smith died. It's hard to wank off to dead porn stars without feeling like a creepy pervert.

@tvh2k: If you're not willing to look at the mentality behind the perfidious purloining of porn, then you're not going to solve the problem.

Sci-Fi thought: If they had fixed the computer on the first visit, so wouldn't have had to return the next day. Or deal with the "visit the house" stuff that followed. Because of the change in where she was when, she might have been somewhere else at the exact instant of her auto accident, and thus not been killed.

Gee, I guess we might be able to partially blame the geeks at Best Buy for her death.

@B: the first time is the hardest, it gets easier after that.

"link safe for work)" WRONG

"Access Denied The link you are accessing has been blocked by the Barracuda Web Filter because it contains content belonging to the category of: Adult"

But that isn't anything new. Barracuda blocks Rush Limbaugh too! :)

Seriously is this "p0rn" really that hard to find? I mean all these techie geeks don't know how to use the internet?

It's not like they're going to last more than a few mins/seconds at any one time anyway!

That link is NOT safe for work. There is full nudity in one of the pictures on a wall poster.

Hey, does Wal-Mart still have that T-shirt for sale?

@B: It was hard to wank off to Anna Nicole Smith, period. She's fuggly and skanky in a Paris Hilton kinda way. Mila Jovovich, Angelina Jolie (Pre-Pitt) or Claire Danes Plz.

Would you make the key to your safe the same key as the one to your house? Probably not, so don't use common passwords. I totally blame the victims here. Would you take your car to your mechanic, and keep all your naked pics of your wife in your glovebox? If you don't want people stealing your porn, then don't give them the chance. And if you're too stupid to know how, perhaps you shouldn't own a computer! Not to say these guys are right, but your government nor your constant complaining can protect you from everything! People are always going to steal your dirty pics as long as you are connected to the internet. Get used to it.

It's not so much the fact that they can't find porn, it's the rush that they get in finding something they shouldn't involving someone they know in one degree or another. It's a form of voyeurism that gets them off. It's kinda like the guys that record themselves having sex with women without their knowledge.

Barracuda is a massive piece of shit.

Well, her death raises the market value of her pr0n, so her accident may be a good career move.

@rocnrule:

true, though passwording her trash was i think a step beyond what most people would do.

Damn, it gets dirtier and sleazier...

Ben, I'm going to go out on a limb and maybe risk getting banned from posting.

What the heck is up with all the porn post? Why are you totally ignoring the most important fact about this whole topic? The only reason the articles are about porn is to drive more readers to your site with shock than to actual report on the important news here.

In the end, 99% it'll end with those geeks and not go any farther. While it's the other documents on the computer that people have FREE ACCESS too that is the kicker. Credit card, social security, passwords. EVERYTHING about a persons financial life is usually stored on their computer. These are things that could totally destroy a persons life and be used for criminal means. Identity theft is a MUCH MORE serious crime than taking random porn from a computer.

And yet you have spent about (ballpark) 6 articles with the highlight PORN over the last few weeks in an obvious attempt to drive people to your sight not for the actually reporting, but that one word sells itself.

Though i'm sure a good percent of the population has some kind of porn on their computers. I'm pretty sure 100% of the population would be more affected and more worried that these people have access to all the rest of their private information.

Sorry Ben, but as long I've been a reader of your great blog this whole issue has been a huge disappointment for me.

BTW how is this more sleezy and disgusting from the next geek squad member that steals porn? Her passing away is after the fact.

The car crash is irrelevant to the invasion of privacy. Geek Squad sucks.

@miburo:

Completely agree. While this blog contains a lot of very informative articles, this whole Geek Squad + Porn series has been way over the top. I think it may be because they are the only ones that get serious diggs / hits, and Ben ultimately only cares about the ad revenue coming in for this series.

Why not search for serious corruption, such as important personal data being stolen, even if it's from a less popular tech service like Firedog, Apple, etc. If you really care about "the industry" and people's privacy, then you'd go beyond the big bold headlines with Porn in them.

I agree with those who are saying this post is exploitative. The car crash has nothing to do with the incident, which was bad enough. Nor does her status as a porn star.

Let's try to elevate the level of dialog here, Ben. Knock off the appeals to sensationalism and emotion.

I would like to add that that poor girl was a real beauty, but physical characteristics notwithstanding it's always a waste when a young person is killed. :(

Blackshirts, huh? So not only is Walmart selling Nazi iconography shirts, Geek Squad is extending its spy conceit by using Fascists/Nazis as its models? ([en.wikipedia.org]) Hmm, something about forgetting history and being doomed to repeat it comes to mind.

@Ahkum: This and Megan's Chinese Poison Train...

To defend Ben here, it is not his fault this gets alot of attention. These posts began with Geek Squad stealing porn as policy and the readers I'm sure boost it by sending more stories. I don't come here for the true stories, I come for the comments and opinions as if such stories were true. Maybe it is an attempt to get more readers but would not the end justify the means!? If they read these stories, perhaps they read a few others and become a little more aware. He is reporting other stories and you guys don't have to read these if you don't want to, just skip the ones with "PORN" in the headlines!
That being said, I don't find the big deal in this. I just like all the comments.

I'm a little confused at why people are making a big deal about them copying the porn. As has been observed, the fact that they are copying ANY files at all is reprehensible, be they porn, mp3's, financial statements, or family photos.

But ignoring that point, unless the owner or significant other of the computer appears IN the porn, they're just copying files that the computer owner downloaded from the internet or copied from CDs/DVDs they purchased.

I met Jasmine Grey a couple of times at, of all places, comic book conventions. She was unbelievably sweet, friendly and down to earth about who she was and what she did. She made enough of an impression on me that I was genuinely shocked when I found out she had passed away.

I'm a computer guy. Sometimes I fix computers. Sometimes I find things I'm not supposed to see. That happens and it's really part of the job description. Computer guys know they're doing something wrong when they comb through images. They know they're doing something wrong when they pull out the pen drive. The guys who do that stuff are scum.

But the guys who were chasing her "porn" (she was, as far as I know, a nude model, not an adult film star) should know something: She gave me a few pictures of her when I asked. She autographed them and thanked me for even taking the time to stop and chat with her in the first place. I bet, if those guys had asked, she probably would've done the same thing for them, completely above board, no compromise of ethics required.

@revmatty: Actually, in this case it IS reprehensible. Even though her job was selling herself naked, and selling her sex, her job was only selling CERTAIN pictures and sexual events. What was on her computer could have been completely personal, and thus theft of them wouldn't simply be theft of a product, but an invasion of privacy.

Not that the entitled, holier-than-though geek squad perverts would care.

There is actually a difference in this story: While the porn they may steal from my computer would be porn I got for free from the internet, her porn was actually her business. They actually stole something of value from her.

They still just stole porn and not financial info, but how do we know they didn't/won't?

silly best buy techs, the internet is for porn!!

@rocnrule:

I think in a lot of this sensationalism, you may have gotten confused. It was never Geek Squad *policy* to copy any personal files off of their clinets' pcs - in fact, you can read the employee handbooks that Ben posted awhile back to see just the opposite.

I feel bad that some of the younger folk in our IT world (if you can even classify Geek Squad as that) are making the rest of us professionals look bad, much in the same way that anesthesiologists must cringe whenever they hear of one of their own crazies who take advantage of drugged women, although that is obviously much, much worse.

I had to laugh when I went to that link that had all the comments and pictures. Those people are treating her like some pillar of society. She sucked d**k for a living for christ's sake!

their behavior was grossly inappropriate, but again, this is NOT limited to geek squad. it's an industry problem. i'm a former best buy employee - there are a lot of good, well-intended individuals that work for the company.

i, for one, genuinely tried to make a difference in the lives of my customers...please don't assume all best buy/geek squad employees are immoral, pimple-faced, thieving, teenage slackers.

the moral of these stories: know how your computer works and protect yourself.

Personal files like home made movies was stated before. All have monetary value.

Again the point is that porn shouldn't be the issue here, its personal data in general.

Hah! That is me in that photo with Jasmine Grey, which the consumerist/Ben Popken used without my permission:

[www.whateverland.com]

Not that I care, but nice way to use other peoples images when you write an article about stealing images!

-Archie

I like how the Consumerist/Ben Popken used that photograph of me standing next to Jasmine Grey for this article, which they probably found on my personal photoblog using Google Search:

[www.whateverland.com]

Nice way to have an article about stealing images while also stealing one for your own web publication!

-Archie

Hah that is me standing next to Jasmine Grey! Nice way to write an article about stealing images yet you use one of mine without my consent for this story!

Archie from Whateverland.com

Ok, "Whateverland." One post is enough to state your complaint about your picture being posted.
Three posts linking to your blog in a row is spam.

@whateverland: Way to spam, buddy.

Again with the "OMG people steal porn"!!!!!! and absolutely NONE of the "hey guys, here's a few ways to secure your data in the event that a third party who may or may not share your moral values can't access it without being supervised".

It's tabloid journalism (if you can even call it that), rather than something responsible.

Stop with the theatrics, and get down to solutions, helpful advice or something other than fearmongering and blaming a company for things it really can't control. (again, you can fire as many people you want, but just like you can't stop the pissed off teenager at the fast food place from screwing up your food order, you're never really going to stop every single geek that touches computers to stop having the desire to find someone's porn, ESPECIALLY if they're a porn star. ).

You're all for helpful advice with the other stores that slag on a company and what people can do to avoid getting shafted, but this one you're just beating the dead horse into the ground with the idea that people like porn. I don't know if this is all part of some grand anti-porn morality crusade, or if you're an ex-BestBuy employee with an axe to grind, or you had something erased from your computer when you took it to GeekSquad or what, but all the finger waving childishness with no helpful solutions or advice really needs to stop.

lol, i love geek squad, they make the best stories ever!

Omg! Geek squad steals pron and music at work! that's supposed to be an AT HOME hobby.

@whateverland: Just want everyone to know that Consumerist and Whateverland have come to an agreement and he has agreed to let us use his photo, which we found on the original jasmine grey site linked to in the post where it was posted without photo credit or attribution, we did not find it on his photo blog.

@masterdave:

I think that's really importand, Dave.

Ben, I'd love to see a article or two on how to prevent this from happening. How about educating the consumers on Vista's folder encryption, 3rd party software for protecting XP folders, etc.