News - PC repair shops found to be snooping customers' data

[HEXUS]

An undercover investigation has condemned the practises of computer repair shops in and around London.

Read more.

[Singh400]

Doesn't surprise me. Some really dodgy people out there.

[Arthran]

We've been known to go through user's files when laptop's come back to be repaired, but then again we are dealing with company computer's with a requirement to check for non-standard software/machine usage.

Some users are really bad!

Still, when you take your pc into a shop to be repaired you expect them to no rip you off and over charge, i'd expect most pc shop's to go into your file structure, not because they should, but i'd just expect people to do it. lol

[alchemist118]

I would never take a computer to a repair shop, but saying that I've repaired a dozen computers and laptops. I've snooped at there file esp the hidden ones... lol

Why are people suprised at this finding, its a common procedure.

[OilSheikh]

Ethics. Thats what these cowboy repair idiots r lacking.

[kingpotnoodle]

I am totally unsurprised by this file browsing... the wife/daughter's webcam pics for their 'special friends' probably being the prime target, closely followed by bank details! I would expect it to happen if I were taking my computer into a shop (the Gary G example as proof of expectations!!).

I wonder how many of those repair shops deliberately misdiagnosed the problem, and how many are just incompetent... I have encountered many people who *think* they know how to repair computers because they one upgraded their own RAM or graphics card...

This is why you should always take it to a knowledgeable friend if you have one, at least you can trust them not to rip you off even if they do look at your amateur pornos!

[w1ntergr33n]

Pretty disgraceful stuff, though not at all surprising. Why is there no industry watchdog to strike places like this off, and if there is one what is it playing at?

[usxhe190]

All acts are pretty bad but the wrost one is where that guy tried to access the banking accounts...!!

[amdavies]

The problem is that the Gary Glitter case has pretty much given computer repair shops carte blanche when it comes to rooting around in people's files. The bank account access attempt is clearly fraud and while checking through a user's files could be within their remit, copying them definitely isn't.

[dexta211]

Not surprised at all! One of my friends was a "Tech Guy" and he used to ring me up for advice lol! I think that a lot of it is that ppl don't know their ar$e from their elbow in computers.

The rooting through files is no surprise at all!

[watercooled]

I always say to my friends and family let me have a look at the computer first to see if I can do anything - TBH I can't remember a time I couldn't sort it. I've never looked through files and have no reason to - people trust me with their computers and I wouldn't betray that. It is stupid what some repair shops charge, especially when there's nothing actually wrong.

[arthurleung]

I think it should be common practice that harddrives are removed prior to handing any computer for repair. And people don't care they get their bank account details stolen, they can always get the bank to refund any loss due to fraud.

[peterb]

Either encrypt anything sensitive as a matter of course - or store it on a flash drive until it is needed.

[handscombmp]

As bad as it is, the file snooping doesn't suprise me and i suppose that if you put private on it people are bound to look.

But trying to get the bank details is 100% wrong.

Would would be interesting is if they were to go back their with another laptop and see if it happened again.

[asposium]

my laptop contains very little "personal" data, it is all stored on my windows home server, the laptop mounts a network drive when it boots.

if my laptop is lost, stolen or breaks my personal data is safe

another matter entirely if the server breaks ... but the server is backed up just in case.

[Flash477]

I think it should be common practice that harddrives are removed prior to handing any computer for repair. And people don't care they get their bank account details stolen, they can always get the bank to refund any loss due to fraud.

The trouble is that a lot of the time a computer problem is software related, so removing the HDD in those cases would pointless. Most of the problems the company I used to work for (as a web designer, not engineer) were things like viruses and slow performance with which you need the HDD.