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.
I’ve been in tech since 2007 and people are stupid and sometimes they leave “private” photos on the damn desktop. No offense to end users but don’t leave your pornos out in the open…buy two USB drives and back it up to both and store in a closet or something. The end user is also at fault here imo. Many times IT people aren’t looking for shit but people are stupid enough to leave it right in the open.
People are allowed to leave shit on their private computer out in the open and IT bros have 100% of the moral responsibility to not look at it.
It’s unrealistic and more importantly unjust to blame the victim here.
Why are you clicking and opening people’s image or video files even if they’re right on their desktop? I doubt that’s part of the repair troubleshooting you are supposed to be doing. You shouldn’t be clicking on their images or videos even if they are easily accessible.