No, I don’t, unless it is part of fixing whatever the problem is.
Reminds me of a law that was proposed in Maine a long time ago (I don’t know if it ever passed or not) requiring any tech guys to report to the Maine State Police if we worked on a computer that had illegal porn on it. I was dead set against it for several reasons.
#1. I believe in respecting the privacy of people for whom I do that kind of work. I don’t access anything unless it is necessary in the course of the work I do. So unless such images are right in front of my face, I’m not going to know about them. This law could have, effectively, punished me, and others like me, for things we’re unaware of–for not doing what I consider unethical.
#2. If it was right in front of my face (like a desktop wallpaper or something like that), I’m reporting it anyway, law or not. I don’t need the threat of punishment to do the right thing.
In answer to the OP. The tech guy should not have to access anything more than your web browser, mail client, and the wireless network properties to set you up. He should have no problem with you supervising him while he has your computer.
My suggestions, in order of increasing difficulty/better protection:
Just rename the folder to something like “/CAR REPAIR LOG/2007”. Ideally, you already have a group of boring folders you can put it amongst (I mean, even a snooper probably won’t look at REPAIR LOG/2007 if he’s already seen that REPAIR LOG/2011, REPAIR LOG/2010 and REPAIR LOG/2009 are all actually logs of car repairs). You could I think make the folder a hidden system file, for a little more obscurity, but if someone does find it that will just raise suspicions.
Throw them all into a ZIP folder with a password (obviously don’t name the file ALL MY EMBARRASSING PICTURES.ZIP). Crackable, but it’s going to take some special software that a tech shouldn’t be bringing to your house. And it will take a little bit of time and a lot of motivation, especially if the ZIP file is somewhere boring and remote. well-hidden, disguised ZIP folder is probably enough to even keep out techs at a repair shop. Maybe not enough to protect it from, say, bored computer-savvy teenager living at your house, though.
Truecrypt. Why mess around with anything less when this is completely secure? The only drawback is that it takes a bit more work to hide the fact that you have an encrypted partition, but it is do-able.
Move everything to $5 thumb drive, which is in your pocket the whole time the tech is there. A little riskier, but pretty secure. For max security, I imagine truecrypt or something else can encrypt the drive.
yes, but what about file size? Most of the repair logs are simple excell sheets or whatever, maybe 2-3 megabytes. And suddenly “repair log 2007” (with the secret porn videos) is 10 or 20 giga . That might cause a technician to open it because it appears to be a legitimate problem.
I like the idea once posted somewhere on this site: a guy who kept a shortcut on his desktop (alongside My Documents) labeled " My Porn". I like an honest guy.
No.
I really, really don’t care about what’s on your computer. The ONLY time I ever look at what’s in the files on someone’s computer is if the hard drive is full. I then usually just do a “properties” on the Music folder. If a guy has a 200-gig hard drive, and there’s 190 gig of music, I’ll recommend that he delete some of it in order to free up hard drive space. That’s about it.
I’ve got automated programs to delete all your temp files, I’ve got automated programs to delete all your Windows Update files, and other little processes to clean stuff up. Unless you’re hiding your pictures in the c:\windows directory, I won’t even look at any personal stuff on your machine.
I just want to get you up and running again so that you stop whining at me every 10 seconds about when your computer will be done. So I can get to the next user - who is whining at me every 10 seconds about when I’m going to start working on his machine.
Yeah, a guy who’s just trying to get in do the job and get out probably won’t care.
It’s the person who has the machine sitting in their shop and is nosy that you have to worry about.
Or, as mentioned, the guy who has to clear out some disk space from a full drive and finds that 3/4 of the disk space is used by a folder called “ThosePhotos”.
Also, if it’s internet browsing, you past browsing history is usually on display unless you clear it - nobody has to be nosy to find it, it will pop up as you start typing an address in IE.
Clear your internet cache. Delete the contents of your “recycle bin”.
Back to the OP, you want a folder labeled ‘My Porn’, but have it contain lots of pictures of expensive sports cars or some other non-sexual not really embarassing objects of lust.
Then the real stuff goes in /Program Files/MS Office/Word/Templates/Languages/US English or somewhere equally boring.
That might be counterproductive, for hiding them from the computer repair guy. He might notice that the MS Office folder is bigger than it should be, and suspect that that might be related to the problem you’re having. He would then go tier-by-tier through the directory structure to find the bloated subfolder, to see what’s causing all the peculiar bloat. On the other hand, if you actually put all of the real porn in a folder called “My Porn”, then the tech guy won’t be surprised to see that that folder is very large, and so might not bother to search through it.
A computer tech would have no motivation to actually go looking for your porn. He already knows how to get all the porn he’d like from Internet sources, and his tastes are almost certainly different from yours anyway.
OK, disable hibernation, put the naughty stuff in a zip file in the root directory, rename it hiberfil.sys and mark it Hidden + System. The Windows tech probably won’t bat an eyelid at a huge file of that name in the root directory.
Intrigued as to how “personal pics” evolved into a huge megabyte chewing Rule 34 grade porn stash between the OP and here, I double checked my files, which by contrast seem so mundane that I shall add a bow and print Christmas cards for friends and family. Those of you who provided helpful tips: check your box. Conclusion jumpers: expect coal.
Eh, come on, the discussion has become more general since then. You set the challenge of how to hide a large number (“too many to transfer to USB”) of private files if one has no access to the usual privacy tools such as TrueCrypt and people are just kicking ideas about, that’s all.
As above, just put it in a folder labelled something no one wants to touch or has any real business looking at. I keep some of my stuff in a folder called “Insecure” buried under a Security folder.
My ex owned a computer repair business for a while and one of his techs liked to snoop through people’s drives to see what he could find. My ex hated it and tried to put a stop to it whenever he could but his business partner thought it was funny and encouraged the guy. I remember numerous times seeing them going through a customer’s computer and laughing. I’m almost sure I remember him taking copies of things for himself too.
My brother’s friend was a computer tech and he used to brag about the stuff he found and copied off people’s machines. I’ve been in his shop and seen him doing it. I was shocked because at the time I was there as a customer and he was complaining to me that there was nothing worth copying off my machine (last time I ever went to a tech recommended by my brother).
It’s despicable and unprofessional, but I just assumed it’s widespread. I imagine it’s a similar percentage to the number of people who will snoop through their host’s bathroom cupboard.
There’s a bigger chance of someone seeing your sensitive stuff if you send a computer in for repair than with a cable guy that only needs 30 seconds with the network settings as part of a cable/wireless installation. Of course he might open a browser to make sure everything works, so don’t leave goatse as the home page.
Yes, the link explained that, as well. It’s new to me, though, even having one thin, flimsy layer of protection to help keep someone from single clicking and opening something is welcome news to me. Peace.
