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posted by janrinok on Thursday March 08 2018, @12:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the trust-nobody dept.

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


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 08 2018, @02:54AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 08 2018, @02:54AM (#649291) Journal

    You are describing the typical computer user, I think. But, things can get a little complicated. Windows maintains logs for all kinds of crap, remember? Want to know what sites Internet Explorer has visited? https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/track-a-users-internet-explorer-history-with-iehistoryview/ [techrepublic.com] Keep in mind that people who use Geek Squad are NOT the most tech savvy computer users. They aren't going to clear all those logs. Geek starts browsing the history, he notices "lolita" pops up repeatedly, and he starts searching for images. He knows SOMETHING has been cached, he just needs to find it. Or, if he's luck, he finds the "porn" folder, where he finds hundreds of images (or videos) of naked little kids being sodomized, or whatever. Maybe that porn folder is in the trashcan folder - but of course, you and I both know that deleting something in Windows has never actually deleted anything.

    It probably isn't accurate to say that all child porn lovers are idiots. But, a lot of people are clueless, and that includes child porn people.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:46AM

    by Gaaark (41) on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:46AM (#649425) Journal

    Yes.
    Warrantless searches are wrong but yeah, if your going to do CP, you'd better be not so clueless, lol.

    --
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