Best Buy's Geek Squad Finds Child Porn on Janitor's Computer, Janitor Arrested

These guys are so out of line....always. I brought my laptop in for battery issues. Amazing how those idiots erased my hard drive and in the end knew just exactly what company I owned. They thought it was cool and I was cool until I threatened to slap the s*** out of that goofy fool. Obviously they had gone into my files to know just what I did for a living. My business files are highly private and many patient issues were viewed by the geek squad. I had asked for a back up disc but was told it wasn't necessary, it was only a battery issue. They did more than change the battery overnight. I won't even step into a Best Buy again.

I agree with Tink...this idiot sent his stuff to the Geeks for a reason...if your too stupid to fix it yourself and you have child porn..you deserve to get caught.....I think "dave" in this posting has some of his own child porn...

You lose all privacy when you hand someone your Hard Drive and ask to fix it or recover lost data. GO GEEKS!

Well I quess if you want privacy on your computer any more and it breaks down you just have to buy a new computer. Geek squad is not getting my businesa anymore. I'll fix it myself if I can't then I'll just buy a used computer for 100.00. I had good luck with them. So up yours Beast Buy and Geek Squad

Yes that type of ponography is sick. He deserves to be punished.
But, those fucken geeks knew what files they were looking to recover, and they went to other files that were not related, expecting to themselves find some porn and get off on company time. If I was the management @ Best Buy, I'd fire those geeks for wasting company time looking at porn.

In order to find lost files they need to view the file segments, so this guy should be on americas dumbest. If you have stuff you don't want anyone to see then don't send it to someone and ask them to look through it. well at least this guy is no longer free to collect these pics. But how do we go about those who have more sense and delete their tracks? thats the real problem... the only thing to do is look after your own kids
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This one is a tough call.

Listen, if you are STUPID enough to have kiddie porn on your PC and you give it to a company to look at well DUH........ you get what you deserve.

You have no expectation of privacy when you give a piece of equipment to a company.

This would be the same as years ago when you had to get your 'film' developed down at the drug store. Get a grip people, I can't belive the number of people who think the company was wrong. If it was your child, I imagine you may feel differently.

What a biased article. If you send in a computer for data recovery, you have to expect someone to look at your data as part of that recovery. How else can they know if the recovery was successful?

Turn on your brain, Terrance O'Brien

They were probably looking for illegal downloads for the record industry when they tripped on this stuff.
People seem to forget that there is a difference between government and the private sector. The Constitution is an agreement between the Government and the Governed limiting the powers of the Government.
The Geek Squad is not the government, your lawyer or your doctor. It is a private business that fixes machines. It is up to you to beware with whom you share your files. When you take your computer hard drive to someone, you are taking everything you have ever done with your computer and giving it to a stranger.
Either, follow good backup practices and crush your malfunctioning hard drive when there's a problem or plan on a rectal exam.

First off...all GS would've had to see was a thumbnail of an image. Enough to set off the alarm. Data recovery means going through and FINDING ALL the files. What do you suggest...they do it blindfolded without looking at your files? A lot of you are paranoid beyond a reasonable level. This is one of the reasons I don't keep ANY person information, like banking, SSN, you name it, on my hard drive. My husband used to work at Best Buy...and their geek squad NEVER over stepped their bounds. In fact, the one time someone started to talk about what they found, they were immediately written up and then later fired. It wasn't anything illegal they found, but it was still someone's private information.

This particular GS did the right thing. As a mother of a little boy, I sleep better knowing someone is looking out for my son somewhere out there as well as us. The janitor was doing something illegal, so yes, he does lose all rights to privacy. That would be like you opening the door to the mailman and you're reeking of crack and he can see crack pipes on the table behind you and suddenly a small child runs past. Hell yes he better call the cops!!!! I don't give a crap about privacy rights...when it comes to child endangerment, that takes top priority...ALWAYS.

Two questions,how would you feel if this jerk takes his sickness to the next level and it is your daughter or granddaughter who becomes the victim by either injury or death? Would you still want the privacy act to be the main factor? If you support privacy, you roll the dice for harms way, if you don't, you question our constitution. How about a signed document that gives the permission to or not to invade you files when you take your computer in for service?

Agents let customers know that they will search through the computer to find problematic files. I am an employee at Best Buy and there have been several times when our agents found child pornography on customers' computers. By law, whenever they find any file, they are to report it. Every single time they found the file, it was on the desktop, with a thumbnail photo. Personally, I do not think that that is violating personal property when the thumbnail clearly shows a bad picture.

did u ever think that maybe while they were restoring the hard drive that maybe a file name poped up with something like 15 year old nude or something like that and that lead to handing it over?

I say let them check everyones computer for crap like that. I have nothing to hide so that would not bother me. Catch the freaks!