# Best Buy Geek Squad geeks being paid FBI informants **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 10, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835 "2017-01-10T21:20:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/81 "2017-01-12T18:22:15Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I don’t see Encase mentioned in the article either. Even if we accept a forensic analysis is standard Geek Squad practice when recovering a disk there’s no reason to assume they are using software that [“has maintained its reputation as the gold standard in criminal investigations”](https://www.guidancesoftware.com/encase-forensic) since presumably, they generally aren’t doing criminal investigations. My wife’s cousin does data recovery for a retail chain that is not Best Buy; they use Encase for data recovery because, according to him, it’s the best suite of tools for recovering data. I don’t know what tools BB uses, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/82 "2017-01-12T18:31:23Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > **Bricker** , would you agree that a Best Buy technician who has an ongoing agreement with the FBI or any law enforcement agency is no longer a “private actor” for Fourth Amendment purposes? Not per se, no. I think the “agreement,” specifics are important. > [@](#): > > I find the fact that Meade was giving the FBI information about his facility’s discovery of child pornography in general… > > …and his apparent lie about whether he was a paid informant very disturbing, and I’m surprised you don’t. Getting paid regularly would certainly transform him from private actor. But if I were to learn that the $500 was to repay expenses he incurred in a one- time favor of examining a hard drive for the FBI, then no. Nor does his regular reporting strip him of “private actor,” any more than Mrs. K across the street implicated the Fourth Amendment by calling the cops twice a week with complaints about kids on her lawn. It’s certainly possible that the tech is no longer a private actor, but the defense bears the burden of showing this to be so. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/83 "2017-01-12T21:51:00Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I don’t know what tools BB uses, though. Exactly. So we don’t know if this is a “in plain view” situation and in many ways that is a hinge point of the argument. So it’s a little odd that you seem to assume the answer throughout this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/84 "2017-01-12T22:05:48Z")
This thread confuses me. Is the issue whether or not it was a legal search or is it whether or not it is proper for the FBI to pay people looking at our computers for information? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/85 "2017-01-12T22:16:51Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > That’s certainly a legitimate reason that they might come across this info without looking for it. > > I’d then extend my argument to the makers of that software. It should include a privacy mode for use on other people’s data. It doesn’t work that way though; for what we were doing, it was usually either corporate computers, or duly subpoenaed personal computers, typically in trade secret litigation. In both cases, it was not uncommon to look for things like images of things. And if you’re searching for images, you usually don’t have an inkling as to the filename, and wouldn’t trust it if you did, as files are easily renamed, especially by shady characters trying to obscure their tracks. So you’d go looking for every image file on the hard drive, regardless of filename or extension, and you’d go digging in the unallocated space as well. If there was anything illegal on there, it would certainly be dredged up and thumbnailed, and be clearly visible as a part of the investigation. And I can guarantee you that had we run across anything like that, the first thing we’d have done would have been to call the local PD, and offer them the original hard drives (we worked from copies made with write-blockers). Now Best Buy may not have forensic software costing five figures, but it’s not a particularly tough thing to go scrounging around in unallocated space for deleted files, I guess ultimately we should be glad that these sorts haven’t become savvy to steganographic techniques. That would make this kind of thing nearly undetectable. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/86 "2017-01-12T22:32:00Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > This thread confuses me. > Is the issue whether or not it was a legal search or is it whether or not it is proper for the FBI to pay people looking at our computers for information? It’s both. The FBI paying people to do warrantless searches of random people’s computers would be illegal. If the FBI is merely rewarding people for reporting crimes they encounter in the normal course of their job, that’s not illegal but raises questions whether they are incentivising snooping. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/87 "2017-01-13T02:44:22Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Exactly. So we don’t know if this is a “in plain view” situation and in many ways that is a hinge point of the argument. So it’s a little odd that you seem to assume the answer throughout this thread. Since I know of at least one other chain that uses it, and since it has a stellar reputation for data recovery, the assumption did not seem a crazy one. But even if they use another tool, the plain view argument might survive – as long as they recovered graphics files and checked them manually, the same result is reached. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/88 "2017-01-13T03:57:57Z")
Yes, it’s certainly possible. BTW, I’m pretty sure your anonymity would survive actually typing the name of the stellar chain your wife’s cousin works for. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/89 "2017-01-13T04:09:26Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Yes, it’s certainly possible. > > BTW, I’m pretty sure your anonymity would survive actually typing the name of the stellar chain your wife’s cousin works for. Just saying. MIcrocenter. But the “stellar reputation” refers to Encase, not the chain. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/90 "2017-01-13T17:01:53Z")
> [@bump](#): > > It doesn’t work that way though; for what we were doing, it was usually either corporate computers, or duly subpoenaed personal computers, typically in trade secret litigation. In both cases, it was not uncommon to look for things like images of things. Oh, sure. But that’s not what Best Buy is or should be doing. And while there are obvious economic arguments for just using whatever tools are around, if we’re going to take personal data privacy seriously as a society (so far we are not), then that indicates we should make the investment to have the right tools for the job that can preserve privacy. Hospitals don’t use a shared plaintext file that anyone can access. They use special software that preserves the privacy of their patients. The documents on someone’s computer ought to be as private as the results of their colonoscopy. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/91 "2017-01-13T17:07:19Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Oh, sure. But that’s not what Best Buy is or should be doing. > > And while there are obvious economic arguments for just using whatever tools are around, if we’re going to take personal data privacy seriously as a society (so far we are not), then that indicates we should make the investment to have the right tools for the job that can preserve privacy. > > Hospitals don’t use a shared plaintext file that anyone can access. They use special software that preserves the privacy of their patients. > > The documents on someone’s computer ought to be as private as the results of their colonoscopy. That’s not a view that society has really adopted, though. It’s perhaps a good idea, but it’s your notion of normative treatment of data, not the actual extant recognized practice. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835/92 "2017-01-14T05:40:04Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Oh, sure. But that’s not what Best Buy is or should be doing. > > And while there are obvious economic arguments for just using whatever tools are around, if we’re going to take personal data privacy seriously as a society (so far we are not), then that indicates we should make the investment to have the right tools for the job that can preserve privacy. > > Hospitals don’t use a shared plaintext file that anyone can access. They use special software that preserves the privacy of their patients. > > The documents on someone’s computer ought to be as private as the results of their colonoscopy. Oh, I’m not defending Best Buy, just pointing out that some of these things can be non-snoopish, depending on what was being done. If someone was just restoring files from unallocated space at the customer’s request and the pedophile customer was particularly organized, even the directory tree structure or filenames might be sufficiently incriminating without even having to view any images at all. FYI, hospitals and healthcare aren’t any more secure than any other normally secured system; they’re in the same league with banks and the like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-buy-geek-squad-geeks-being-paid-fbi-informants/776835.md?page=4)