When you need to drop off your tech devices for a repair, how confident are you that they won’t be snooped on?
CBC’s Marketplace took smartphones and laptops to repair stores across Ontario — including large chains Best Buy and Mobile Klinik — and found that in more than half of the documented cases, technicians accessed intimate photos and private information not relevant to the repair.
Marketplace dropped off devices at 20 stores, ranging from small independent shops to medium-sized chains to larger national chains, after installing monitoring software on the devices. In total, 16 stores were recorded. (At four stores, the tracking software didn’t log anything, or the stores didn’t appear to turn the devices on.)
Technicians at nine stores accessed private data, including one technician who not only viewed photos but copied them onto a USB key.
as a technician myself, I hate this. I truly don’t understand why any tech would ever do any snooping. I fix dozens of devices a day, I need the password so I can test the new part and make sure everything is working as it should be after the repair. I’m far to busy and apathetic to give a shit what people have on their devices.
side note, for those of y’all with Samsung phones, there’s a maintenance mode that will allow the tech to test everything after the repair but not access any data on your device.
How would I go about putting my device in maintenance mode? Iirc that was only available for repairs at Samsung Authorized stores?
Settings -> Battery & Device Care -> Maintenance Mode
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