Gateway as computer cop
p2pnet.net Feature- When Robert Westbrook dropped off his PC at a Gateway Computer store for servicing, “a technician saw private files on the computer that he thought might be illegal,” says the EFF.
“Gateway called the police, who searched through personal files on Westbrook’s hard drive looking for more evidence – before ever getting a warrant.”
So it’s OK for techs to roam through your system looking for problems and then they rat you out? Mind-boggling.
“Imagine if the law permitted the people who service your computer to share all the personal information on your hard drive with the police, without your consent and without a search warrant, says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). But Westbrook’s case, on appeal to the Washington State Court of Appeals, threatens to allow just that, it says.
The EFF has filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing people have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the contents of their computers, and that their Fourth Amendment rights don’t disappear when a computer goes for servicing.
“Allowing computer technicians to snoop on people’s private data is like putting surveillance cameras in dressing rooms,” says EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
EFF – Service Technicians Can’t Snoop on Your Hard Drive for the Government, August 15, 2005
August 16th, 2005 at 5:09 pm
Guess I’ll never buy a Gateway computer, wouldn’t want one of those geeks sharing my private information.
August 16th, 2005 at 5:47 pm
If the GW tech inadvertently came across some CP in the course of working on the computer, then he is required by law to report it to the authorities. No way I can side with some pedophile on this one.
Besides, what kind of ID10t can’t remove their own viruses and spyware or do a repair install of XP? I mean, really, it’s simple enough. You don’t go driving a car around that you can change the tires or oil on, do you?
So…no sympathy for the pedo, no sympathy for the dumbass.
Of course, if he took the machine in because it was “owned” and being used as an FTP repository for some pirate, then he can’t be held responsible for the contents of the drive…
Hmmm.
August 16th, 2005 at 9:13 pm
god, whenever it comes to computers and illegal files, everyone always jumps behind the pedophile/child pornography point. ok…everyone knows that child pornography is illegal. but what about when it isn’t child pornography, but looks like it… like that crappy cliche picture of you getting a bath in the sink when your a baby. every parent or grandparent has one of those pics. and do you really think some technician is really going to know the difference…nope. so now the cops are rooting around thru the computer and arresting the person for child pornography and probably reporting them to the **AAs to get sued for all that illegal music. and honestly…they didn’t do anything wrong. Yea people should be smarter about computers, but then again, technicians shouldn’t be snooping. Wouldn’t you be pissed if the guy changing your oil started going thru everything in your car? I know i’d be. and the whole thing with the cutsie naked kid pictures, that happened to a couple earlier this week or last week, their getting prosecuted as pedo’s just because they took a pic of their kid in one of those cutsie nastalgia kinda ways, and took it to walmart to be developed. now let me ask you, how many of you have seen that picture, of yourself or someone else in your family being bathed in a sink or something stupid like that? i know i’ve seen a few…and shut up, my family isn’t a bunch of pedofiles, i’ve seen them at other peoples homes too.
I see a problem with this, because it starts with the Child Porn (Remember, think of the children, think of the children, i swear this whole damn planet is so obsessed with the effin children that its impossible for the 18-35 age group to do anything fun anymore without requiring at least 1 form of ID, 2 friends, $100, doing it within a certain time of day, having a reason for doing it, making sure children didn’t see you do it…etc etc) and with that inch, they take a mile. next its if you have pictures of pot, or drugs, or anything related to drugs on your computer, then they get to root around. If you have a copy of “A Brave New World”, “1984″ or “Animal Farm” on your computer, you know get searched. Jesus, when does this shit stop.
And all you little crap heads justifying it with child pornography or some other scape goat. You will never cease inappropriate behavior. you can only steer people away from it. so stop being so obsessed with Child Pornography on computers and P2P networks. Cuz i can think of a really easy fucking way to evade getting caught with child pornography…its called the mail. last time i checked no one at the post office looks inside envelopes…oh ban the technology, ban the technology, ruin the privacy, ruin the privacy. If anyone wants to do anything they’ll do it. Quit making the problem worse and just suck it up and use common sense. their is no reason for that tech to be looking at those files, none the less reporting them. If a mechanic finds a joint in my car or anyone’s car, i want him to leave it there, and not call the cops on me, when he was the one snooping. sorry for the rant and calling you all names, but some of you deserve it.
August 17th, 2005 at 1:23 am
i think the gateway service forgot they arent law enforcement and so the patriot act cannot work for them, but hey, i guess they can abuse that too since they are corporation. good thing i never trusted those guys.
i worked once at the same type of business, so does my friend, not for gateway though. we would fix computers also, but we had a strict privacy policy we couldnt even say to other employees about the files we seen. the only time we can report any information to the police was if it exactly said “i will do this… to this person…” and it was serious and meant. and that before the head (boss) would decide.
and for gateway, its just a step away from security to privacy breach, that information can even be sold.
August 17th, 2005 at 6:53 am
Supposedly, the government is limited by law as to what can be done involving the priacy laws and the private citizen that is not a suspect in a criminal case. What isn’t said is the government is collecting files on many private citizens in databases. They are using a round about method to do so. By hiring private firms and buying the data instead of collecting it themselves, they get the data without having “broken the rules”.
The **AA’s are doing the same thing. Notice that they very careful guard how they got their data. You don’t hear a peep about that. Anyone ever wonder why? Because if you have a firewall could not intrusion into your system by spies not possibly fall under the dmca laws? How about spyware that is used to datamine data off your computer? Elliot Spitzer has had a campaign with spyware that isn’t plain in its intentions and easy to uninstall. Well, if it doesn’t fall under those, how about the intentional release of trojans and viruses by paid for parties on behalf of the **AAs? You think that prehaps that might fall under the present anti-virus spreading laws in existance today? Notice that while articles are ever present in sites like p2pnet, there doesn’t just come out the own up of doing so. There are far too many on p2p to be the work of individuals, it has the fingerprints of intentional release.
I too would be upset to find my data all over the place and laid out for cops to “check out”. Not because there is child porn, not because of pictures of drugs or drug paraphinalia, not because there might be virus code on my computer. Understand, none of those are present on my computer and I do not fool with, believe in, nor mess with any of the above. As almost all parents have, I have taken pictures of my daughter when she was less than a year old. Call it family tradition. I have no sexual interest in such photos but as all of our family has done, it is the thing you spring on the new groom. It goes back a long ways in our family that this has been done. Sexual? Sorry there is nothing there of sexual intent.
I seem to remember not too many days ago that there was an article here of Australia having fell victim to the do gooders that results in just such family photos could result in prosecution. Lawmakers with jerkknee reactions to do something to look good. Wrap it in the flag, mom, or childern and all of a sudden it looks really good. If you are not for it, you’re a sick individual. Only the victims of this sort of thing won’t be the criminals that do deserve prosecution. It will be the moms and dads with no intention of child porn at all. Simply do-gooders are doing far more damage than good.
August 17th, 2005 at 10:57 pm
This is good for businees. MY business to be exact. I repair computers on the side. I DO NOT SNOOP. The only files I look at are the ones that I suspect are causing the computer to malfunction. The only things that I install on a client’s computer are what they want me to install or things that I beleive that will protect my client’s property. I do not act like the corporates and post some bullshit privacy policy with a bunch of fine print about exceptions. I simply do what is right. I fix the damned computer, and do not worry about what the computer contains because it is NONE OF MY BUSINESS. Many companies would do well to learn what we learned as a child.
August 17th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
The EFF press release conviently omits the fact from their press release, but their brief clearly states that it was child pornography that was found on the computer, not just some p2p mp3s.
August 18th, 2005 at 12:52 am
It doesn’t matter what it was. The tech had zero business snooping around on the hard drive and the cops violated the Constitution by doing their own snooping on the computer BEFORE getting a warrant. The technicians at Gateway are not deputized junior G-men and the police (of all people) are REQUIRED to follow the law.
As for child porn, I would suggest that some of my baby pictures, taken in the early 1960s would today be considered kiddy porn. You know, bare butt on a blankee with a rattle and a stuffed toy. My parents must be spinning in their graves knowing they had beautifully framed kiddy porn taken by a professional photographer (pornographer?) on display in their home.
Take a bare butt in the bathtub picture of a kid today and get it developed at WalMart and the Sex Crimes Unit will be there to greet you when you try to pick up the prints. But what a great country this is, because you can see one of Janet Jackson’s boobs, complete with piercing on Network Television. I’m having difficulty reconciling all of this. Anyone else?