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FBI agents paid employees in Best Buy's Geek Squad unit to act as informants, documents published Tuesday reveal.
Agents paid managers in the retailer's device repair unit to pass along information about illegal content discovered on customers' devices, according to documents posted online by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The digital rights group sued the FBI for the documents last year after the bureau denied a Freedom of Information Act request.
The EFF filed the lawsuit to learn the extent to which the agency trains and directs Best Buy Geek Squad employees to conduct warrantless searches of customers' devices during maintenance. The EFF said it was concerned that use of repair technicians to root out evidence of criminal behavior circumvents people's constitutional rights.
[...] Another document shows the FBI approved a $500 payment to a "confidential human source" whose name was redacted. The EFF said the payment appears to be one of many connected to the prosecution of Mark Rettenmaier, a Southern California doctor accused of possessing child pornography after he sent in his computer to Best Buy for repairs.
The EFF said the documents detail investigation procedures in which Geek Squad employees would contact the FBI after finding what they believed to be child pornography on a customer's device.
The EFF said an FBI agent would examine the device to determine whether there was illegal content present, and if so, seize the device and send it to the FBI field office closest to where the customer lived. Agents would then investigate further, and in some cases try to obtain a warrant to search the device.
Best Buy said last year that three of the four employees who may have received payment from the FBI are no longer employed by the company. The fourth was reprimanded and reassigned.
Previously: Cooperation Alleged Between Best Buy and the FBI
FBI Used Best Buy's Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance
EFF Sues FBI to Obtain Records About Geek Squad/Best Buy Surveillance
Related: How Best Buy's Computer-Wiping Error Turned Me into an Amateur Blackhat
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Justin Case on Thursday March 08 2018, @12:39AM (2 children)
Justice: A crime victim can get help prosecuting the attacker and seeking restitution.
In Soviet Amerika: You can get paid for "finding" "evidence" even if there is no victim anywhere. Well I guess the guy who gave you his computer is now a victim, but we'll just ignore that because "child porn" is the root password.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday March 08 2018, @09:17PM (1 child)
Child pornography has victims. The children. Appealing to "Oh noes child pronz" does not change that.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Thursday March 08 2018, @09:36PM
I didn't say they are not victims. Let them (or their parents) show up in court and describe how the criminal(s) harmed them. Then convict the criminals.
The problem is when a starving minimum-wage employee can fabricate evidence (as described repeatedly in this discussion) to frame an innocent person for a small cash prize. There will be no victim to show up in court because nobody was actually harmed.