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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: 2) by NewNic on Thursday March 08 2018, @12:56AM (4 children)
Most people have no clue how to back up their computers.
Until the prevalence of cloud backups, many people would use their computer until it failed, shrug their shoulders and abandon the files they had "lost" and buy a new computer. Others would buy a computer and take it to someone to transfer their files before the old one failed.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 08 2018, @01:31AM (2 children)
Some people are smart enough to keep their files on redundant encrypted drives attached to their computer, so it's easy to deal with a loss.
On the other hand, that could land you in jail forever without trial if you claim to have forgotten your password.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday March 08 2018, @01:52AM (1 child)
Those are not the people whom Geek Squad employees are reporting to the FBI for what they found on their computer.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 1) by Roger Murdock on Thursday March 08 2018, @03:26AM
They're also not the people whom Geek Squad employees are searching their computer only to find nothing. Perhaps they only search guilty people's computers?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday March 08 2018, @04:11AM
But hopefully at least some people know what can happen if you don't [youtube.com]. A good pop-culture reference for someone who may not understand technology in depth.