moral dilemma

[petrefax]

posted this is here cos its vaguely software related - mods feel free to move if you think its incorrect

i have a bit of a dilemma on my hands - my boss doesn't have a technical bone in her body so she's asked me to do her a favour & have a look at her cousin's laptop

her cousin & cousin's husband bought this laptop between them, but they've in the process or divorcing and her cousin has taken the laptop. even though they bought it between them, the bloke used it 90% of the time, it has windows 2000 on it & all accounts are password protected, so its not much use to her as it stands, but she does have some accounts info on there that she'd like to salvage if possible (she runs her own business from home, i *think* she's a mobile hairdresser)

anyhoo, i said i could try to get around the passwords, & if that fails just wipe it & reinstall the OS etc. but the accounts info would be lost.

The first thing i tried was to guess the passwords - would you beleive it the administrator account was still active, and the password was..(wait for it)...."password" so i've got in & removed all passwords

the only problem is, (now bear in mind i wasn't snooping in any way, honestly) but i couldn't help but notice that this laptop was full to the brim with porn - mostly saved to the desktop on the admin account, hence not being able to avoid noticing!

a lot of it was "swingers" type porn, this fella was at least preparing to, if not actually using online personal ads to meet women in his area

now bearing in mind my boss's cousin & this bloke are in the middle of a very acrimonious divorce, so this sort of info would possibly be very useful to her, as would the accounts info that she initially wanted to salvage, what the hell should i do with this laptop before handing it back???

[Falcon2004]

You should jsut hand it back and say that you have removed al the passwords, let her use it herself, if she find it then its up to her, if she doesn't then thats life.

If you do say anything she may feel that you've been snooping, if you say nothign and she find out you know, she may ask why you didnt tell her, best thing to do (IMO) is to act ignorrant

Falcon

[turkster]

I'd agree with Falcon2004 especially if you dont know this person that well.

If, as you say, the stuff is on the desktop then she will hardly fail to notice anyway.
IF she asks you about it you could just say you were being completely professional and only doing what you were asked .

[spazman]

You got to say!

[Alex]

Would it hold up in court like this? I mean, if you've accessed his passworded account? Are you even allowed legally to do that?

Personally, I wouldn't say anything. If she finds something, then thats up to her. I wouldnt want any responsibility in any matters as sensitive as a divorce!

[nichomach]

Hand it back, say nothing and forget about it. DON'T get involved; if it's an acrimonious divorce, it's a situation to just stay well clear of.

[TiG]

Petrefax, advise your boss, and let her make the decision in my opinion. But tell your boss you want no part of anything to do with them any more.

TiG

[Anders]

Is the divorce any of your business? If not, then what relevance does your finding porn on the computer have?

If you do tell her anything, stick to cold hard facts, i.e. you found some porn on the computer. I do not know how you define porn as “swingers” porn, but let her make up her own mind about what type of porn it is. I doubt you can be certain he was preparing to meet other women. Can you even be certain the porn is his porn and not hers?

[petrefax]

obviously i don't want to sit here discussing porn in depth, but it was definitely his, and he was definitely arranging to meet ppl, i could work out that much from the little i saw!

[Anders]

obviously i don't want to sit here discussing porn in depth, but it was definitely his, and he was definitely arranging to meet ppl, i could work out that much from the little i saw!

I am surprised you can be definitely sure of that just from porn, unless other information was present as well. Yes no need to get into the details, I will take you word for it.

Still, as I said before, if you tell her anything just stick to the bare minimum facts, and make no suppositions. That way you cannot be accused of stirring up trouble or sticking your nose in (much ).

[DeepThought]

Just hand it back.

[petrefax]

i had a chat with my boss & asked her opinion, obviously kept the details to a minimum - on her advice i wiped it & reinstalled the OS & she's taking it back to her cousin on the w/e.

she was cool about it & i don't think she was surprised by this anyway, obviously she knows the people involved whereas i don't

cheers for the input fellas