Computer repair shops browsing customers' files

[Note:  Don't miss the major update and clarification at the end of this post]

Last week there was a brief news item about a local arrest on kiddie porn charges:

Computer shop tip leads to child porn arrest -- Associated Press

ODESSA, Texas - A tip from a computer repair shop led to the Thursday arrest of an Odessa man on a child pornography charge, police said.

/snip/

Odessa police Sgt. Paul Shepherd said repair workers found images of child pornography on a laptop computer that Hughes brought in for repair.

Source: Star-Telegram.

These type arrests seem to happen ever so often.  And the lesson here is that repair shop employees are browsing through the personal files of their customers' computers.

Now I am definitely not condoning the possession of kiddie porn.  But, I am also not condoning the browsing of someone's computer files.  That's against the law too.  Chapter 33 of the Texas Penal Code contains this:

§ 33.02.  BREACH OF COMPUTER SECURITY.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses a computer, computer network, or computer system without the effective consent of the owner.

So if a computer owner has any files that he/she wants to keep secure from prying eyes -- tax, financial, personal, etc. -- then it might be a good idea to remove them from the hard drive before taking the computer to the shop, or at the very least, make sure the shop employees know that they do not have the owner's consent to access any of the owner's files.

Major update and clarification! (Added 10/22/2006)
Your attention is directed to the comment from Darrin G. explaining why authorities were called:

As owner of this computer repair facility, I feel it necessary to comment on the circumstances...

Upon powering up the laptop for troubleshooting, the desktop wallpaper was a very young child, completely nude in a suggestive pose. We would not for any reason browse confidential or personal files. I felt a moral obligation to call an investigator.

Hope this answers your questions/concerns.

Thanks for that clarification, Darrin G.  That certainly sheds light on the issue.

Comments

[Les]

I wonder if most computer repair places include a release on the repair ticket about consent to access files in order to do repairs? Even if not, I'd guess a court would find that giving a shop a computer for repairs would constitute "effective consent" to "access" the computer. But, it could be a delimma... if a computer repair guy sees illegal material is he obligated to report it? Technically, yes, I'd say.

But I'd have to agree with you... a computer repair person shouldn't be looking just to see what's on there, and the person who leaves incriminating material on a computer when taking it in for repair ain't the shiniest spoon in the drawer.

[Geo]

Les, good point about the repair ticket. But, while some repair situation might require the opening of a particular program, it's hard to imagine a situation that would require the repair person to look at a specific document within that program.

Anyway, thanks for the comment, and I look forward to your postings at West Texas TV.

[Ed Coyne]

I own a computer repair business in San Angelo. I can't imagine ever having to look at pictures or documents on a client's computer to solve ANY kind of computer problem. The only thing I require my clients to sign is a "data loss waiver". I would think that "effective consent" would still limit the computer repair shop to file access only having to do with the repair at hand.

[Darrin G.]

As owner of this computer repair facility, I feel it necessary to comment on the circumstances...

Upon powering up the laptop for troubleshooting, the desktop wallpaper was a very young child, completely nude in a suggestive pose. We would not for any reason browse confidential or personal files. I felt a moral obligation to call an investigator.

Hope this answers your questions/concerns.

[New Orleans Computer Repair]

Our shop would never browse through a customers data.

Fortune 500 companies as well as many government agencies including the Navy, National Guard and U.S.S.S come to us because we hold a strict customer confidentiality policy. Employees suspected of "browsing" a customers computer, outside of the realm of repair are immediately terminated.

We do a lot of recovery and one of the things we do is clone the drive. In this process, there is no data viewed.

[z]

load a key logger or a video recorder in the backround before taking to dork squad then you can see first hand what they do when they boot your pc

[Geo]

Hmmm. Good suggestion, Z.

[computer repair]

As a computer repaid technician I have made this a strict policy in my repair shop that no one will open private customer files on their system. Accessing private data files of customer can land a computer repair shop or technician in serious legal trouble.

[Australia migration]

I do not agree with this. You cannot point out a Dr. for watching sexual organs of any person while treating with that effected portion. because without watching,he/she cannot operate that.Similarly, if there would be problem like virus infection or file error then technician may need to watch files stored in drives. But technician should not misuse or copy them.

[USB Flash Drives]

Data confidentiality is very important.

[Computer Repair]

If some one has computer or laptop there are lots of issues which are appearing in the term of repairing. Computer repairing should be from a store that is trusted by you.

[Online computer tech support]

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[computer help]

Not eveyone is the same, there are some good IT support companies out there

[USB Flash Drive Memory]

Oh, my god. If ttah, what should we do to protect our privacy?

[PC technical support]

Very interesting topic. I totally agree with you. When you ask the technician to repair your pc/laptop, you already entrusted your laptop. If you are a professional and knows the ethics of your profession then you should not in any case open those personal files.

[Computer Repairs Los Angeles]

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[Computer repair]

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