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EFF Sues FBI to Obtain Records About Geek Squad/Best Buy Surveillance

posted by martyb on Friday June 02 2017, @10:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-your-business-elsewhere dept.

takyon writes:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain records related to the FBI's secret relationship with Best Buy's Geek Squad:

Sending your computer to Best Buy for repairs shouldn't require you to surrender your Fourth Amendment rights. But that's apparently what's been happening when customers send their computers to a Geek Squad repair facility in Kentucky.

We think the FBI's use of Best Buy Geek Squad employees to search people's computers without a warrant threatens to circumvent people's constitutional rights. That's why we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit today against the FBI seeking records about the extent to which it directs and trains Best Buy employees to conduct warrantless searches of people's devices. Read our complaint here [PDF].

EFF has long been concerned about law enforcement using private actors, such as Best Buy employees, to conduct warrantless searches that the Fourth Amendment plainly bars police from doing themselves. The key question is at what point does a private person's search turn into a government search that implicates the Fourth Amendment.

Previously: Cooperation Alleged Between Best Buy and the FBI

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 02 2017, @05:36PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 02 2017, @05:36PM (#519462) Journal

    If a cop is planting evidence, they're going to screw up sooner or later, by "finding" it illegally or getting the paperwork wrong.

    Conversely, when they've been running this game for a while, what's the odds that your trial is going to be when they screw up?

    It throws every other action in an investigation, including starting it, under suspicion. Your "strong implication" is a mirage.

    Only if you can show it. Else it can harm you instead.