According to the ad, your parents are going to find out exactly what kind of sick, perverted stuff you are into - unless you use their new Holiday wish-list website (titled HintOrElse.com, just to rub it in). It's good to see one company really get into the holiday spirit, if 'the spirit' happens to be free-wheeling paranoia and abject horror.

Funny gamestop Commercial (Hint or else) [youtube]

866-878-7962 [800notes] (Thanks to jurijuri!) (Photo: Getty)

Why did it change its mind? Who knows. Previously, the plan was to let flight attendants be the porn police and instead only block Skype and other internet phone services.

Now the Dallas Morning News says:

American said that it is working with Aircell LLC "to implement technology to filter pornographic content over the Gogo inflight Internet service."

Delta will also be filtering porn when it launches its own WiFi service.

American to filter out porn on its Wi-Fi [DMN via Gothamist]
(Photo: benh57 )

The "vast majority'' of travelers use good judgment in what they look at, said Tim Smith, a spokesman for Fort Worth, Texas-based American. 'Customers viewing inappropriate material on board a flight is not a new scenario for our crews, who have always managed this issue with great success.'

[...]

American's attendants don't want to become ``moral policemen,'' said Frank Bastien, a spokesman at the union's headquarters. Attendants also don't want to be exposed to laptop images of violence or pornography, he said.

"It's a real concern to our members,'' Bastien said. American "put on filters that will prevent people from making Wi-Fi phone calls, and they don't seem to have any qualms about doing that. Where's the protection for other things out there?''

Ars Technica correctly points out that passengers have always been able to smuggle aboard promotional materials for the Mile High Club, mostly without incident.

What's worse: sitting next to a guy watching porn, or sitting next to a guy yabbering away on Skype?

American Air Attendants Urge Filters to Bar Web Porn [Bloomberg via Ars Technica]
(Photo: Getty)

Nancy writes:

Time Warner is charging me for movie purchases which I have not ordered. My current bill is 1400.30. The overwhelming majority of these movies are pornographic. My bill informs me that among many others, 17 were ordered on May 8 and 14 were ordered on May 10. Time Warner says it is impossible (their word) that these movies were NOT ordered from inside my house using my remote control and my cable box. I am a 60-year old English teacher. I have never seen a porn movie in my life. I LIVE ALONE. No one else has access to my house when I am a work. My husband who works out of another state is helping me in an effort to rectify this mess.

So far, we have been through the telephone drill (on hold, rude customer service clerks), a 90-minute visit to my local cable company where I was told that "maybe your dog ordered them," a phone call to the Time Warner CEO's office in Connecticut (national, not district) where I talked with a Customer Relations rep, a call from a Customer Care rep at district level, etc. None of this has helped. I was told at every level that the only way known to man that these movies could have been ordered is from inside my house using my equipment. I am 100% certain that they haven't been ordered from my house.

It looks like I'm going to have to swear to that under oath in court because my husband and I have agreed that we will not pay for these movies (52 movies since 4/21, most of them costing $11.99 —- I didn't even know there were on demand movies that cost $11.99). Though I have been researching this problem for hours and hours and have seen comments from others being charged for movies they say they didn't order, I have not seen anyone with a problem with Time Warner of this magnitude. Can you think of any possible way this could have happened?

17 porn flicks in one day? We're young. We're ambitious. But that's too much—by far—even for us.

Nancy's situation calls for a dose of common sense, which means executive customer support. Call Jeff Simmermon, Time Warner's Digital Communications Director, at (203) 351-2221, and see if he can't help wipe off those misfired charges.

(Photo: Getty)

"When I saw it, I was shocked," said Milfs. She was so offended by the books that she prepared a complaint to her state representative and to other organizations such as Morality in Media, Concerned Women of America and the American Family Association.

Milfs contacted Urban Outfitter's corporate office. "They said they are not sex books or pornography books, but that they are art books and their goals are to support the artists," Milfs said. Urban Outfitters has not made any official comment.

To protect children from sexually explicit content, many states have laws that limit children's access to any material that lacks "serious, artistic, political, scientific or literary value," said Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, a group established to fight pornography. "The vagueness of the state law creates a legal gray area," according to Peters. "Arguably, an item that is inappropriate for children might be allowable if it's found suitable for adults."

According to Milfs, "It's not freedom of speech. It's selling adult books to teenagers." Whether or not a book such as this qualifies as "adult" is subjective to each adult individual, and just because a book has the word "porn" in its title, doesn't mean it's pornography. While we certainly agree that Milfs has the right to raise her child in a porn-free environment, we're just not convinced that paper genitalia qualifies as porn, however, your mileage may vary.

Mom appalled at racy books in store for teens at Alderwood mall [The Herald]

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]

Statements + Lawsuit (PDF)

Consumerist Forums reader "1gunit" discovered free porn while channel surfing on his new HDTV. It began when a strange program appeared that started to automatically fast forward itself through what was some presumably boring dialogue. When the program began to play at normal speed, "1gunit" realized he was watching someone else's "On Demand" porn. How did this happen? His letter, inside...

About a month ago i discovered that i was getting a few unlisted channels on my cable tv. I do not subscribe to "Digital Cable" I get "Extended Basic" (basically all the channels you can get with out the box) one of the 1st shows i came across was a porn and to me and my wifes surprise right after a rather interesting scene it started to fast forward to right passed all of the talking parts. It was then we realized we were watching other peoples "On Demand" shows. It varies from Blues clues to PPV movies to hot girl on girl action
This only happens on my newest tv which gets HDTV channels the Chanel's in question are in the 107 range..107-1....107-10. I asked about it at my local charter office when paying my bill and after a lot of apologizing and assurances that I was the only one this was happening to (more on that below) they took my number and told me some one would call the next day its been 8 days still no call and I still get free porn.

I went to work the other night (At a group home for mentally handicapped people) and guess what they get the free porn as well

I'm just wondering of anyone else is getting the same thing on there HDTVs. I'm not really complaining I like free porn (even if the jerk with the remote fast forwards through the redheads)but I bet someone a little less open minded than me will freak upon discovering this.

We commend you on your strength of character because most people wouldn't complain about free porn. For most adults this would be no problem but naturally there are others such as children who should not be able to freely receive adult programming. Since you also observed this phenomenon at work, it must mean that this situation is at least partially widespread. Because you have already reported the problem once with no relief, you should elevate this problem to someone in a higher position and see if they can help you bring a happy ending to this story.


Free porn on my charter cable [Consumerist Forums]
(Photo: Getty)

I discovered last night that my Comcast Adult on Demand channel is 333. Easy buttons for a child to accidently press, particularly when Nickelodeon is 33. That's right, one extra push, and my five year old gets the Playboy listings instead of Spongebob.

Yeah, I blocked Adult on Demand, but I only found it in the first place because I was searching the hinterlands of Showtime en español.

(Photo:rick)

Daniel Dean Thompson, 31, of Orem, was released from the Utah County Jail on bond Friday afternoon, according to the Utah County Jail Web site. Isaac R. Lifferth, 24, of Springville, is still in jail. Bail was set at $30,000.

Thompson, owner of the edited-movie retail store at 908 S. State St. in Orem, was arrested on two charges of forcible sexual abuse and two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old. Lifferth was arrested on two charges of forcible sexual abuse, a charge of unlawful possession of a prescription drug, two charges of aiding prostitution, two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old and two charges of patronizing a prostitute.

According to a report Thursday by John McCombs, an investigating officer with the Orem Police Department, Thompson told the girls that edited movies were sold at Flix Club as a front, but he and Lifferth actually made and distributed pornography.

Thompson, a former dealer of edited movies with CleanFlicks, started Flix Club at the same address after the dealership was terminated at a time when the Hollywood movie industry was bringing legal pressure on businesses that edited movies.

Flix Club was forced to close last year in the wake of a landmark federal court ruling that said several movie-editing businesses violated U.S. copyright laws when they altered movies to remove nudity, profanity and other offensive content and offered "sanitized" versions for sale.

Clean-film business was front for porn, police say [Daily Herald via Philmguy]

Geek Squad employees viewed over 800 images contained in a folder titled XXXYOUNGS. The images featured young girls believed to be between the ages of 7 and 15. In some of the pictures the children were nude; in others, they were engaged in sexual acts with adult males.

Middle School Employee Charged with Child Pornography Possession [FOX9] (Thanks to Nick!)

Police Blotter: Can Circuit City techs legally peruse files? [ZDNET]
(Photo: jadakatt)

I wanted to write in about my recent experience with employment at circuit city. I work at a circuit city in Colorado, I was recently hired as holiday help. I was hired on as firedog, but only got the position for a few days, while I was at the post I got a standard firedog USB flash drive as a part of my job, it belonged to my supervisor. It was apparent he had wiped it before he gave it to me, which made me rather suspicious that he wouldn't leave the standard firedog tools on there...

So I obtained a file recovery tool to check the drive..What I recovered gave me quite a shock.

Massive amounts of porn. And not just the pornstar kind, lots of pics of people in their bathing suites posing with friends, many self taken shots, just creepy stuff that you know was stolen from peoples computers. But other than that I have seen nothing else that would suggest a massive porn ring like that of best buy.

-Anonymous

(Photo: wingless girl)

The autographed implants have been placed on eBay and Carey, whose real name is Mary Cook, said she planned to donate some 90 percent of the proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

She intends to use the rest of the money on medical bills for her mother, who suffered major injuries after jumping off a four-story building in 2006.

I had worked for Geek Squad for over a year, and Best Buy a year and a half before that and was recently let go. Back when they started scanning computers, they said they found downloaded music and movies on our machine and we were to send them the hard drives. So we boxed them up and sent them out.

A month or so later the interrogations happened. We all had our turn, and when it was mine, I walked into a room with the table pushed against the wall and two chairs in the middle of the room sitting two feet apart with nothing in between.

Our store's loss prevention manager and the district loss prevention manager was there, and I reached out to shake his hand. He shook mine, looked me in the eyes and said "I already know if you are going to tell me the truth or not," with an intimidating grip on my hand still. Then we sat down, our knees inches apart. He asked me how long I had worked there, and how many hours a week I worked, why I liked working there. He didn't really care why, he just wanted to tell me why he liked working for Best Buy. He told me, "Well, I used to be a cop, and when you're a cop everything you do is reactive, you can't really stop people from committing crimes. Here I normally get to come in and make sure processes are in place so we don't have problems. But here we have a problem, and now I have to be reactive and be a cop again."

From there he asked me all sorts of questions about why there was music on our computer and where it came from, which was mostly us backing up customer's music because they paid us to, and my coworkers and i bringing in our iPods, which was ok with all the levels of management in the store. He even made a joke about how that wasn't "SOP" (the Best Buy bible), but he knew that our store LP manager was ok with it. It was ok because they trusted us. I was asked why we had Linux isos, which made me laugh. Also, during the interview anytime I was asked a question, I don't know wasn't an acceptable answer. At one point I stopped answering him because I was just sitting there saying I don't know. Then he had me write down everything I knew about in the precinct and sign it at the bottom. The district manager told me he would read it over afterwards to make sure it was "what they needed." I filled out the paper, signed it and gave it to him. Then they told me if I talked to anyone about what happened I would be fired.

Then the interesting began. My supervisor immediately started looking for another position at one of the 3 new stores opening in our area. He got one and put in his two week notice and stopped caring about his job. Everything started falling apart, then he left so we had no supervisor. So I put in my two week notice and found another job. The thing was our supervisor didn't know anything about fixing computers. All he card about was "selling our services" to people so he would meet his budgets and then tell us techs to fix whatever the customer wrote down which more than once included "retrieve deleted files" which yes we could have done if we were allowed to use the software, but we weren't. So he left and everything got better. And I talked to my general manager about staying, and he told me he saw how I had helped being a leader once our supervisor left and he was impressed and would like to see me move up in the company. A few days later we had a new supervisor who was a really nice guy and knew his stuff about computer fixing.

Now, I know you guys know about Jonny Utah (internally Geek Squad drops the 'h' so they don't get sued). Well I despise JonnyUtah. The entire time I worked there we were given goals of a certain number of computers which were to be fixed by JonnyUtah each week. The goal was seven. Most of the time we didn't hit our JonnyUtah goals because we were able to fix all the computers we brought in ourselves without needing help. I disliked it because:

1) I didn't get to work on the customer's computer
2) Someone in another country that does not have the same privacy laws as the United States was fixing our customer's computers.
3) Anytime we asked where the JonnyUtah guys were located we were told either it was "Top Secret" or "An undisclosed cave in a mountain on a remote island." Seriously.
4) We did a much better job than Jonny ever. We had so many people bring computers back that those guys "fixed" still having problems or hardware issues that you can't really fix over a remote connection.

On October 18th, the day after my birthday I came into work early and the entire district staff (probably 6 or 7 people) were hanging out in our area where we fix computers talking to my friend who was one of the other full time techs. I went into the break room to eat my lunch and my buddy came in and told me the district guys were asking him if he would be offended if he had to go out on the floor and sell Geek Squad services instead of fixing computers, and having JonnyUtah fix more of the computers. I clocked in and five minutes later was told by my general manager that I was being let go for having music and movies and unapproved software on the computer.

So whatever I don't work there anymore, I'm not crying. But I wish people would realize that Geek Squad isn't worth what you pay. Best Buy's rules kept us from being great computer techs. They wouldn't let us use linux in the store to do data backups because that required an extra $1500 (not exaggerating) from the customer and we had to UPS the drive to California. We weren't allowed to do laptop repair in the store, even though I'm capable of handling a soldering iron to reattach people's DC power jacks. And they'll tell you this is because they are sending them to the "laptop techs" or whatever, but most of the time that stuff would come back broke anyways and customer's would yell at us. It was a horrible situation for everyone and I think shows that not everything can work on a large scale. For someone like me computer repair is easy. I could have done so much more than they expected of me and brought in so much more money for them and made customers a lot happier not having to wait two days for a guy to put his laptop on the UPS truck. But that's the thing. Geek Squad doesn't want me. They want someone who will take your money and have someone in another country actually do the work. To sell you a $59 diagnostic fee to call you the next day and say "yeah, your laptop is completely dead just like you told us, com buy a new one."

I hope people start realizing that Geek Squad is nothing more than marketing. You see the tie and the white shirt and you assume that the agent knows what they're talking about. The truth is most of them don't. There are no tests. There is very little training and that is mostly on how to sell things. In fact my old supervisor had a motto I heard him use way too often: Perception is reality.

I've enjoyed reading your site since before any of this ever happened, and although in some round about way I ended up getting fire because of an article that was posted on your site, I'll forever support you guys because it's sites like this that can make a difference (and you guys have) in how companies do their business and treat their customers.

Cheers,
Agent Zero

PREVIOUSLY: Leaks: How Geek Squad Investigated Its Own Porn Thieves
Best Buy's Geek Squad Scours Stores In Person For Stolen Porn N' Stuff
VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer
(Photo: Victor Chiu)

Just to make sure there's no other child pornographers out there, Geek Squad will continue to scour the hard drives of its customers for salacious images and video, helping itself to whatever media it fancies as a sort of automatic gratuity for the vigilante services it provides to the community.

Geek Squad trip lands child porn "trafficker" in slammer for 10 years [ArsTechnica] (Thanks to Hassan!)

Geek Squad has also enacted a new "Open and Honest" policy, encouraging Geeks to step forward and report on employees found violating customer's privacy and such, along with a special email address and phone number for anonymously reporting concerns. Furthermore, the use of personal flash drives has been strictly forbidden.

Says the tipster, "I'm guessing this is due to the recent outbreaks of Geek Squad privacy issues."

(Photo: Maulleigh)

Of the move, a former employee writes...

"My personal feeling about all this is that they're screwing the whole concept of GS into the ground. The people that Best Buy has and will hire for these "Geek" positions are (often times) under qualified. If Best Buy rolls this out nationwide, then I feel that any hope of turning GS into something reputable is lost. It then just becomes another gimmick or sales pitch and not what GS originally was; prompt, courteous service by a knowledgeable and friendly technician.

As Stalin quipped, quantity is a quality all its own.

Agent Johnny Utah is the code name for the Geek Squad's remote troubleshooting software. Usually it's used so that outsourced Bangalore workers can scan customer's computers for spyware and viruses and such. In this case, Geek Squad agents at headquarters are using the remote system to scan the Geek Squad precinct's computers for porn and mp3s taken from customer's hard drives.

One tipster doubts the efficacy of the search:

...the search will no doubt reveal almost nothing company wide.. certain machines not plugged in, certain harddrives not plugged in during the search, etc... so they will come back with an all clean in a week, and the problem will continue.

Every techpc in the company was hooked up, and had specialists from corporate office scan them for customer files and information. Our harddrives came up red-flagged and got sent to corporate, but they didn't get the motherlode, because the pile of customer information/porn/unlicensed tools/windows XP ISOs/MP3s were on a seperate HD that somehow didn't make it into the scan.

Best Buy's investigation is an encouraging step in the right direction, but uprooting the porn pilfering problem will require confronting more deeply seated issues. We asked one tipster what Geek Squad could do to permanently reform its culture. His response? "Stop hiring sales people and hire real techs that get paid tech wages."

PREVIOUSLY: Best Buy Fires Geek Squad Supervisor Following Negative Newspaper Articles About Porn Pilfering
(Photo: rofflcopterr)

Good for Lara.

You can read the entire complaint on The Smoking Gun, but here's the best part:

"

Apparently, merely ridiculing Lara Jade was no longer satisfying so Burge [that's the pornographer] and TVX felt the need to accuse Lara Jade of "scheming," by which Burge presumably meant to suggest that Lara Jade, a teenager in England, had intentionally allowed her creative work to be placed on the internet in the hope that it would be stolen by a pornographic video manufacturer in Texas and used as the cover of a re-packaged 1970's era pornographic movie so she could then locate the Texas-based pornographer in the hope of extracting compensation from it. The absurdity of this notion is readily apparent."

Lara's lawyer is awesome.

Teen Sues Over XXX-Video "Debut" (NSFW) [Smoking Gun]

PREVIOUSLY: Lara is NOT a Porn Star

Former Geek Squad agent Brett Haddock, quoted in recent articles in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the LA Daily News, reports, "I have confirmation that the direct Supervisor of the Geek Squad in the Santa Clarita store was asked to step down, but I do not have exact numbers right now as to how many employees have been terminated."

Furthermore, Haddock says that some of his fellow coworkers are none too happy with his whistleblowing. "Some employees have been terminated as a direct result of the articles," writes Haddock. "Said employees are a tid bit "miffed" with me, and the article I rode in on. I have already been sent text messages and emails from people upset with "what I did."

I'm standing up for what I believe is moral and right. I'm sorry for any legitimately innocent person that works for Best Buy whom was wrongfully terminated. It is obvious that Best Buy will seek a fall guy for the incident, so they can site it as "an isolated one" but what they do not realize is the stories that run on Consumerist.com depict a nationwide epidemic with Agents of the Geek Squad."

Hopefully, Best Buy/Geek Squad's vigor will extend to a systematic investigation of every single Geek Squad for possible breaches of customer privacy. An isolated report from a Geek Squad agent in the northeast that they had to remove their precinct's harddrives and mail them to Geek Squad headquarters to check for "privacy issues" could be signs of steps in the right direction.

PREVIOUSLY: Best Buy To Sue Geeks Who Spoke Out Against Porn Stealing?
(Photo: tellumo)

Haddock wrote The Consumerist that BBY's threats posturing is, "an obvious attempt by a big corporation trying to scare the little guy. This may work to silence other agents, but it won't silence me, and they can't scare me for expressing my first amendment rights. I've done nothing but told the truth."

Hey Best Buy, guess what? The store where we got a video of your agent stealing porn? Yeah, it wasn't in Santa Clarita.

Generally, the process looks like this...for most customers, we use a commercial program called Nero BackItUp (available with Nero Ultra Suite) - we mount the HDD as a slave on our TechPC, and we just select the directories we need to backup, and the process automates itself. Unless somebody goes in and looks, or an occasional oddball case (I found child porn on a computer by the fact that CDFS limits the length of the name of a file, and if you put enough keywords in front of it, Nero wants to know how to deal with it) we don't see any the files. This is true for I'd say....60% of all backups we do.

What causes problems are two things: When a customer doesn't know what to backup, or if the HDD has bad sectors/is overly fragmented.

When a customer doesn't know what to backup, and doesn't state to backup everything, usually we go directory by directory and figure out if there's anything worth backing up. This is how agents can start peeking in your files.

When a drive has bad sectors/is overly fragmented - due to the nature of Nero, if one file won't backup, the backup will just crash out. We then use a free program called ROBOCOPY, which is basically XCopy with better switch commands. We copy the entire HDD wholesale (minus Windows, Program Files, and things like temp files and the hibernate file) to our HDD. ROBOCOPY provides error checking, retries files, and skips damaged files to avoid crashing itself. We then backup off the clone of the user's HDD on our HDD.

This would be fine and peachy - if we deleted it afterward. Most of the time, at least in my precinct, we don't. I can often find backups stored on the desktop of the techpc, or in the network accessible shared "backups" directory, or if I just use TreeSize on the PC. Sometimes we keep it for legal reasons - we may have had some major damage to an HDD, and only gotten a small portion of the data files, and we have been sued before over that. But most of the time, we have no reason to keep a clone of a user's HDD on our computer, but seemingly keep them through apathy or just plain negligence. This allows a corrupt agent to search at his/her leisure. The policy is to delete them immediately, but nobody monitors it. The store managers wouldn't know enough to look, and the GS managers don't care, and even if they did, it wouldn't take long to hide something. Every month, we're supposed to reimage the Techpc, but reinstalling everything takes hours - and doesn't make us any money, so nobody does.

The customers don't help us either. Customers often post nude pictures of themselves on their desktop, or have poorly named folders on the desktop, or even pure video files on their desktop. Every agent in my precinct has a 4GB or higher flash memory stick. I have two complete work related CD images, a dozen more programs, 50 or so music files, all of my writing, and all of my schoolwork, and still have 1.8 GB free on my 4GB stick, and I have two additional 2GB sticks, that if I really wanted to steal personal info, I could just format. I've had customers ask me, when performing virus scans to move their Limewire directory "/Documents and Settings//Shared" out so the remover that nukes Limewire doesn't delete it. That's just asking for it.

The customers and managers expect us to run our procedures off the memory sticks - we don't like using Compact Discs unless we have to boot from them because they cost the store money. The way the MRI works, once it gets going, it installs itself into a temp directory, so the memory stick isn't doing anything. You can easily steal files while running a scan. I have a password stripper for Windows, a password stripper for RAR/ZIP files, and a program that removes the obscuring from password fields on my thumbdrives - they aren't part of the toolset, but I was told in certain situations to do "what needs to get it done", so I could easily start stealing passwords - I could just swipe your registry and steal your passwords when I get home, thanks to IE storing passwords.

The other big problem with file stealing is the scanners. The virus scanners especially list every directory name and every file while they're scanning - and it gets really obvious. So there's plenty of visibility for your files, and plenty of opportunity. Geek Squad doesn't condone it, but my manager, who'd be the only one that could notice an agent stealing data, only works 36-40 hours per week. Above and beyond that, we're on our own, self-monitored and self-enforced.

-Anonymous

Best Buy is America's leading electronics retailer. There's a Geek Squad in just about every Best Buy. According to insider emails, comments, and conversations, the theft of customer's personal files is systemic. Unless you protect it, your data is not safe. Don't leave your house with your doors unlocked, and don't leave your computer with a repair tech unless 1) you don't care what they see 2) you've taken necessary precautions to secure your files, like encryption or keeping sensitive info on an external drive.

PREVIOUSLY:
VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer
Geek Squad Hatched Plot To Harvest Porn From Pornstar Jasmine Grey's HardDrive, Days Before She Died In Car Crash
Why Geeks Steal Porn From Your Computer

(Photo: bookish in north park (away for a while))

Once we got into the recycle bin, we realized it was entirely filled with naked pictures and movies. It turns out that this young woman was a pornstar named Jasmine Grey (link safe for work)"

I left for the day and came back the next day to find that one of our fellow employees had copied all of the files to a few dvd's and shared them with management, as well as most of the other techs.

Her webcam was still locking up her machine when she took her computer home that night, so she returned again in the morning. She still wouldn't provide us with her site (not that we needed it anyway at that point), but she did want to look into purchasing a new machine. At this point I handed her off to a PCHO rep who proceeded to convince her that instead of buying a new machine...she should just have an Agent come out to fix it at her house (that way she "could rest easy that her privacy would be assured"). The manager on duty at the time was involved in the scam, so he offered to send an Agent out for free to "go the extra mile and insure she only shop at Best Buy in the future" Of course, the Agent that came out to her house was none other than the same person who copied all her files to DVD. He fixed the webcam in a few minutes then spent the entire remainder of the appointment scouring her network for more porn, which he saved to a portable hard drive. Those files were then shared across the store.

The sad part is that she passed away in a car crash only days later which quickly formed rainclouds over everyone's perverted parade.

So how about that? Not only did the techs steal porn from a customer...they forfeited the revenue from a new computer AND from an on-site visit for the sole purpose of getting more porn.

I left the company 3 weeks later.

We didn't think these stories could get any sleazier or disgusting. We obviously underestimated the Geek Squad.

(Photo: Whateverland)

PREVIOUSLY:
VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer
How To Make Your Computer Catch People Stealing Your Porn
Why Geeks Steal Porn From Your Computer

I just want you to know that I applaud your efforts. I used to work at Best Buy, for the switch from just being techs to branding as Geek Squad. At stored #xxx in Chattanooga TN. (xxx) xxx-xxxx ext xxxx (for the tech bench).

I had the misfortune of enabling the dumping of these files, through a means that you would not have been able to record. For a lot of the stuff we did, we used a WinPE and Knoppix disc to diagnose and fix most issues. The knoppix disc also loaded up a SSH server to which would then be connected to, to download the "interesting" files.

I also know we had to alert the authorities to a couple of machines because of the content that was found.

FBI said to keep up the good work (I guess, because we did what they couldn't)... We were also sued a couple of times, for other "reasons".

The machines of interest were kept in the back near the 'war room,' and was a common spectacle for employees to come back there and see it.

-Former GS agent

I used to work at the geek squad here in rockford, il. They used to do the music thing all the time. Everything we played was taken off someone's machine somewhere. Same with images, video, movies. One guy even had someone's home-made porn on his jumpdrive. It was almost sick

-S

We really have a hard time believing that the guy we caught was an isolated incident, or that higherups had never heard of it happening before.

Given the time (one guy said he had worked there during the transition from when Geek Squad became part of Best Buy), depth (if your employees are interfacing with FBI agents, that has to trickle up at some point), and breadth (note the reference again to a common "war room" where the stolen files became backroom spectacle).

PREVIOUSLY:

VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer
How To Make Your Computer Catch People Stealing Your Porn

(Photo: Maulleigh)

Gizmodo: "For shame, Geek Squad! (You're not supposed to get caught!)"

Network World: "Who the heck steals porn? I mean any 12-year-old can find all anybody should want for free."

Wired Blogs: Gadget Lab: "...be careful where you shop for repairs."

BoingBoing: "By the time your PC needs repair, it will be too late to lock down. Plan ahead, grasshopper!"

Slashdot: "A related story from a former Geek Squad employee details the decline of the Geek Squad and Best Buy ethics in general."

PREVIOUSLY: VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer

Francis West: "im so darn tired of his slander... SO WHAT CAN/ARE WE DOING ABOUT THIS?!?!?!"

Stephen Lopez2: "Plenty of people use porn as a screen saver, desktop background or store it on the desktop. i honestly never saw as much porn till i started working here. its kinda annoying."

Nate Hasty: "Do I believe that this sort of activity is occurring in Precincts all across the nation, and probably the world? Yep. That's why I say instead of piss and moan and cry about the fact that the Consumerist is "picking" on us, let's suck it up and remember that we are supposed to be the most trustworthy PC repair service in the nation, and aspire to be the most trusted in the world someday. But if Agents continue to act selfishly and with as much reckless abandon for the privacy of our clients as was displayed in this video, we will FAIL. "

Robert Miller: "I hate the consumerist, but if there were not problems they would have nothing to report on."

Hey Robert,

Just left you a message but we're getting ready to publish a video about how we found a Geek Squad agent taking images and video from a computer we took in for repairs and copying them to his thumbdrive. If you have a second, I'd love to get a comment.

—-

from Stephens, Robert (GeekSquad)"
to ben@consumerist.com
date Jul 5, 2007 2:29 PM

Ben,

If this is true, it's an isolated incident and grounds for termination of the Agent involved. I'll need the name of the Agent to launch an internal investigation immediately. Are you willing to provide this?

-Robert Stephens

from ben@consumerist.com
to "Stephens, Robert (GeekSquad)"
date Jul 5, 2007 4:57 PM

Robert,

Well, no. The main thrust of our story is that this is a systemic problem. We think it's just luck of the draw this agent got caught rather than another. It's an issue that needs to be addressed broadly in your organization, and across the computer repair industry as a whole. I'm sure you can make the point internally and remind agents of best practices without making an example of one person, perhaps even more effectively.

PREVIOUSLY: VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer

Disclaimer: These instructions are for intermediate to advanced computer users and we will not provide any support nor be liable for anyone who turns their computer into a scorched pile of rancid silicon.

1) Load up a base Windows XP system, and fill it with sweet, sweet "honey". As a baseline, our Poohbear system was a 1.2 GHZ AMD Athlon with 256MB of RAM, about the minimum system requirements you'll need.

2) Set up software that would allow us to review the actions that took place during repair.

3) Send it out into the field.

Two main pieces of software make up Poohbear's guts:

• TightVNC (or any VNC program)

• Pyvnc2swf

TightVNC operates as the recorder, providing an interface to output the desktop of the PC. Pyvnc2swf captures the results of those images and archives them into a file for later retrieval. Pyvnc2swf provides several methods for archival. As Poohbear had minimal CPU/Memory, we opted for raw dumps to a VNC file. A beefier system could allow for straight dumps to a compressed SWF file.

TightVNC setup

After installing TightVNC, configure the helper application, including password and allowing for local loopback connections. Once you've used the helper application, disable it from start-up. You don't want it to show up on the taskbar or it may give the recording away.

Pyvnc2swf

The real work comes from pycnc2swf, which we will need to launch from a batch file. The batch file provides an easy way for to randomize the output files and it can be spawned from a helper service. The helper service, srvany.exe, is a program that allows regular Windows applications to be deployed as a service in Windows. Once your batch file is defined, you can follow these instructions to setup the file to launch at start-up time. As part of the process of defining a service, you'll want to make sure that the name you give it sounds kinda Microsoftian, like "Windows Image Capture Service." In our video, when the technician looks through the service names, he passes right over it.

Here is a copy of what our pyvnc2swf launching batch file looked like:

(Note: The second line is wrapped)

As referenced in the batch file, you'll need to set up an empty file of your choosing so that pyvnc2swf knows what password to log into VNC with. The file we chose, password.txt, contains nothing but the password on its own line. The %RANDOM% parameter guarantees that pyvnc2swf won't accidentally overwrite its own files when it is booting up a second or third time. Feel free to substitute your own variable, like %TIME%.

After everything has been set up, verify that your custom service is set to "Automatic". If the instructions have been followed correctly, then every subsequent reboot of your PC should immediately start recording the contents of the desktop to a directory you've defined on the system. You can later retrieve these files and use the pyvnc2swf "edit" utility to convert that file to your specific needs.

PREVIOUSLY: VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer

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.

According to PCWorld's investigation into several airline's "Contracts of Carraige"... not much can be done. From PC World:

Airlines do have rules regarding passenger conduct, however vaguely worded they may be. For example, American Airlines' Acceptance of Passengers states: "American may refuse to transport you, or may remove you from your flight at any point, for one or several reasons, including but not limited to the following." The document goes on to list seven examples of behavior that may cause you to be kicked off a plane, but only number six comes close to addressing the offensive behavior described in the Times: "Your conduct is disorderly, abusive, or violent, or you...refuse to obey instructions from any flight crew member."

Recently, [a female airline passenger] was in a window seat on a full flight from Newark to San Francisco, next to a man who opened his laptop on his tray table and began watching a hard-core pornographic DVD.

"It was hard to ignore, with him sitting that close," said [the passenger], who finally got up and asked a flight attendant what could be done, since she didn't want to engage the man. The answer: Nothing.

"The ticket you purchase gives you seat space on a flight in the cabin area for which you paid. If the passenger meets the criteria established during the financial exchange for that ticket and the flight departs, they have the right to go on that flight. The entire time on board the aircraft they must comply with the federal regulations governing passengers and crew on air carrier aircraft. The porn viewer does not appear to have been breaking any of those regulations."

What do you think? What would you do?

Airline Passenger Code of Conduct, Part 1 [PC World]
(Photo: mamamusings)

...the representative on the phone told her the only way the phone could have those images was if she took the photos herself or if the pictures were sent to her in a text message.

New phone comes with porn? [12 News via Blorge.com]
(Photo: JD Pavkovich)

• Delete the last guy's porn.

or

• Keep the last guy's porn for yourself, but hide it from your kids.

Yet another DVR with some lewd programming arrived at a kid infested house. When the customer called to complain, Comcast didn't care.

"They didn't care at all," Allman said. "All they said was that they didn't have the time to check all of the boxes and told me to just erase it." "It's hard to tell what is objectionable anymore. I bet there are some people who would have been glad to find it. But I am not one of them," she said.

Still, you don't want your 8 year old watching that. Now Comcast is apologizing and promising that they will check the boxes. They won't. Trust us. You need to check these boxes before giving them to kids. Then, if you find porn, you can complain about what "almost" happened. —MEGHANN MARCO

Woman offended by items on replacement cable box [Press of Atlantic City] (Thanks, Michael!)
(Photo: cmorran123)

RELATED: Your New Time Warner DVR Comes With Porn!

I'M SURE BY THE END OF THE MONTH YOUR FACE WILL BE HISTORY. WE HAVE STOPPED SELLING THE DVD UNTIL COVER IS REPLACED. WE HAVE FURTHER CHECKED OUT YOUR NAME AND ITS NOT LIKE IT'S A HOUSE WHOLE NAME. ACTUALLY, REMOVING YOUR IMAGE WILL HELP IMPROVE THE SELL OF THE DVD..... SO FAR IT BOMBED.

THEY ARE REMAKING THE COVER AS WE SPEAK SO YOUR TEN SECONDS OF FAME WILL SOON COME TO AN END.

AS FOR COMPSENSATION;YOUR SILLY!

Lara, now seventeen, needs a lawyer. Oddly, nobody is willing to take her case. Come on Verizon, lend Lara one of your blood-sucking lawyers; they could have this straightened out in an hour. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER

(HELP) TVX Films situation (still not resolved) [deviantART]
(Photo: Lara Jade.)

Vishal Sehjpal, 22, of the 1700 block of Stifel Lane Drive, brought his computer into the Chesterfield Best Buy store in 2004 for repair. A technician found a video file that appeared to contain child pornography and called police, who contacted Sehjpal and searched his computer and CDs.

Sehjpal pleaded guilty in February to two felony counts of possession of child pornography and admitted possessing both still pictures and videos that contained child porn that he'd downloaded from the Internet.

We're not joking, child porn is really really bad, which is how Geek Squad techs must justify snooping through customer's files. They're stopping child pornographers. Every customer could be a child pornographer, so it's necessary to look through every computer. And hell, why not save the non child porn while you're at it, then share it on a common computer with the other techs. Just doing our job to protect the community, yessir. — BEN POPKEN

Chesterfield man gets 30 months for child porn [St. Louis Dispatch] (Thanks to Neil!)

PREVIOUSLY:
We're Always Looking For Porn On Customer's Computers, Techies Confirm
The 10 Page Geek Squad Confession - "Stealing Customers' Nudie Pics Was An Easter Egg Hunt"

From the City Pages Blotter:

We called a local Best Buy/Geek Squad outlet for reassurance.

"That's absolutely not our practice—it's part of our policy to keep files private," said the Agent. "Although we might see the names of the files pop up, if you've saved pictures as your screensaver."

So we asked, What if we brought in, say, a spouse's computer? Would you search that for hidden porn at our behest?

The Agent paused. "We can do that."

So, we have strict rules against invading people's privacy. Unless you ask us to invade someone else's. — BEN POPKEN

City Pages: The Blotter (Thanks to Oren!)

Highlights:

• Wave a magic erase and reinstall wand over a used PC. SHAZAM! Now it's a new PC!
• Geek Squad agents scour your computer for those porn pics you and your girlfriend(s) took, and load it onto their thumb drives. Even the ones you thought you deleted.
• GS used to be great, until they replaced most of the actual techs with salesmen.

Raw, uncut and uncorroborated, you'll think twice about bringing your computer to Geek Squad after reading this one...

Anonymous writes:

Introduction - What's all this, then?

I am writing this for various reasons. One reason is in hopes that I might shine some light on the reality of Geek Squad and Best Buy; both correcting false rumors, as well as confirming others. Another reason that I have chosen to write this is out of retribution. No, not "revenge", or the stereotypical "payback" you may think of a former employee wanting. And no, not the "vengeance" of a "disgruntled employee", which I surely am not, and still recommend Best Buy services as much as I had before. The retribution I speak of is simply the need for closure. Geek Squad was a wonderful and amazing company, and I indeed loved—and now miss—my job, as well as my friends I made while there (both co-workers as well as customers). Sadly, due to certain events, and by no fault of Geek Squad itself, the company changed, corrupted, and slowly reduced itself to what it currently is. I spent every ounce of myself to make Geek Squad as great as possible, and in the end, due to corporate bureaucracy, bad decisions, and greed, my job that I had taken with so much pride, had turned into something that now brings me shame for even being a part of. Despite all of this, the main reason, however, is essentially so I do not forget the details of my experiences. As you start digesting my story, do so not in the mindset of reading an expos of a company, rather, do so in the mindset of reading a tragic novel.

I Thought Best Buy was Evil - And I was wrong.

Like many people, I have an interesting history with Best Buy. From return issues, to fictitious warranty information, I had experienced just about all I wanted to in regards to the Best Buy brand. But why did I work for them? Did I need the money? No. Was it some sort of sick joke? No. I applied because it was the summer, and my friend worked for Best Buy and guaranteed me I was wrong about them. He was right, and I was definitely wrong.

Best Buy was an amazing company! I remember distinctly telling my friends and family (some who didn't believe me) how wrong I had been about Best Buy. I remember laughing with my fellow Geek Squad agents. I remember smiling and helping customers. I remember wanting to come to work and not wanting to leave. I remember wearing my Geek Squad uniform with pride, even when I could feel the glares of people and hear their giggles. But why should I care? I love working with computers, I love helping people, and I loved my job that allowed me to do both.

I Thought Best Buy was Amazing - And I was wrong.

I loved my job, and I kid you not, it breaks my heart to think back as I watched Geek Squad—almost a member of my family—become beaten and ravaged by Best Buy. It was a shock to me as it happened, but not to everyone. One agent commented to me how Geek Squad replaced Best Buy's old support service. And indeed, he was correct. Though, the marriage of Best Buy and Geek Squad was the most advertised, Geek Squad was surely not Best Buy's first tech-support companion. Best Buy use to have its own tech support service, which it corrupted, ruined, and then replaced with Geek Squad... and is now repeating the process with this new acquisition.

Some of you must be wondering how, exactly, I could have been wrong about Best Buy on both sides of the spectrum. I'll do my best to explain as we continue on.

Customer Centricity - Common Sense Comes at a Price.

It wasn't long after I was hired into the company when I learned why I was so wrong about it: "Customer Centricity". You see, the current Vice Chairman and CEO of Best Buy is a wonderful and kind man by the name of Brad Anderson. I had the privilege of meeting, working, and even eating with Anderson on numerous occasions while working at Best Buy. Anderson has one of those "kind faces" that you do not forget; the kind of face that has a smile even when he is not smiling, and the kind of eyes that do not judge you, and make you realize that the difference between you and him does not rest in the amount of zero's in his bank account, but rather how much of yourself you put into your job. He is a great man, and I cannot stress how much I respect him. Sadly, though, it was his kindness that, I believe, would contribute to the downfall of Best Buy's Geek Squad.

From what other executives in the company told me, the reason my beloved Best Buy was so amazing had to do a lot with the fact that Anderson was getting old, and hoped to leave a legacy behind him of making Best Buy "Customer Centristic". And there I go again, using that term, "Customer Centristic"... Let me explain what I mean: In 2003, a man named Larry Selden published a book, Angel Customers and Demon Customers, and I am not quite sure who read it, but it caught someone's eye in Best Buy. Selden worked with Best Buy to develop Customer Centricity, which basically is a fancy term for, "If you treat customers right, they will trust you and buy more from you." That's it. It boggled my mind how something so simple could be so hard to comprehend, and would require a man like Selden to be paid large amounts of money to consult Best Buy on their customer centricity goals. But this was reality.

Selden became a man of folklore within the realm of Best Buy. I heard rumors that he was chauffeured from Best Buy to Best Buy in a stretch limo. The very mention of Selden visiting your Best Buy caused managers to swiftl