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Topic: PC Service warning.... (Read 292 times) |
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Racer1_NC
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PC Service warning....
« on: May 8th, 2005, 3:24pm » |
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Store's Floor Model Computer Loaded With Woman's Personal Info
Circuit City Says There Should Be No Expectation Of Privacy
DENVER -- Imagine receiving a phone call from a stranger who knew your most private thoughts, knew what you looked like, knew your Social Security number, and even knew how much you make and where you work.
That happened to a Colorado woman after she took her computer to a major electronics store.
Her situation may be surprising given all the warnings about identity theft. But it's not surprising if you think for a moment about what's on your personal computer. There may be files about your income, business records, taxes, personal e-mails, dirty jokes, pictures and more.
It's all personal information unless you took your computer to a local retailer.
Susan, who asked us to conceal her true identity, did just that.
"I do want the general public to know this information. I want them to be aware that their privacy is not protected when they go into that store," said Susan.
That store is Circuit City.
Last June Susan went to the Circuit City store in Boulder to buy a new computer. She asked to have the files from her old computer saved to a disk.
"Let's just say I had many years of private writings, papers, personal information, pictures," Susan said.
Circuit City employees copied those private writings and papers onto a floor model computer then onto a disk. But they never removed Susan's personal files from that floor model computer. A few days later, that computer was sold.
"That evening I got a call from a strange man that I do not know who told me he purchased a desktop floor model computer which contained all of my personal information," Susan said.
When she finished talking with him, she said she felt "shock and fear and anger and disappointment that this happened."
"I can't even express the deep violation that I feel," she said.
Susan said it got worse. She said she questioned Circuit City and was told it was her fault for having those personal files on her computer and for expecting Circuit City to protect her privacy.
That's when she filed suit.
"I don't believe they have a solid legal argument here," said Howard Bernstein, Susan's attorney.
"They're coming up with some argument that it's not really your personal computer or you can't treat it as your personal computer if you bring it into our store. There is no expectation of privacy," Bernstein said.
7NEWS' hidden cameras found a change at Circuit City stores after Susan filed suit.
Employees now offer to transfer files for a fee and promise to protect your information.
"We don't download anything onto our computers whatsoever because it's a liability for you and it's also a liability for us as well," said a Circuit City employee.
That's a change from what Circuit City is telling Susan in court. The company says it had "no contractual duty" because the transfer was done at no charge and with no promises to protect her privacy.
Susan believes any reasonable customer expects a major computer seller would protect their privacy.
"According to them, I'm the only one who feels this way. I'm the only customer who has a problem with the fact that they don't have any respect for a customer's privacy," Susan said.
The two sides will settle their differences later this month.
Because of the pending litigation, officials with Circuit City denied our request for an on-camera interview.
In court documents, the company admits to a mistake with Susan's information but also believes they were under no legal obligation to protect her privacy since she did not specifically ask for protection
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"Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime."
Eventus stultorum magister.
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purpleydog
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #1 on: May 8th, 2005, 5:06pm » |
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If yer gonna take your pc/laptop anywhere to have it worked on, or trade it in, be aware that whatever you have on your machine is gonna be seen by whoever works on it. Think twice if you've got stuff on there you don't want to be seen. And this goes for anything in your "hidden" files. Because they aren't really hidden.
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Azrael
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #2 on: May 8th, 2005, 7:47pm » |
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It seems like there's two problems. The user expecting everyone else to be responsible for her privacy... And the store personnel for being complete and total incompetent morons. The user should feel lucky. At least she hasn't discovered naked pictures of herself being sold on the internet yet.
PFDAN.................................... Drk^Angel
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forgetfulnot
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #3 on: May 8th, 2005, 10:59pm » |
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Is that why we have cd burners? Burn any sensitive info to a cd the delete it from your computer? I know the files are still there but those comp. jocks at Circut City would never see them.
Lee
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Gator
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #4 on: May 9th, 2005, 2:22am » |
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I got news for anyone that takes their computer in for repair or more especially virus removal. Your files ARE GOING TO BE LOOKED AT and like Purpleydog said, your hidden files aren't. Even files deleted from the Recycle Bin can be recovered, though most techs wouldn't go looking for deleted files unless they had a specific reason to.
As a minimum, techs will scan your system for pictures and music they want to copy for themselves. They will also look in zipped files downloaded onto your system. In the case of virus removal, they can justify looking through your files by saying they were checking for the file(s) that caused the virus infection. And I know no one here would need to worry about this next item, but it is a law now that any computer tech finding child pornography on a customer's computer MUST report it to law enforcement personnel.
Some of the more unscrupulous ones will also look for personal information, credit card and account info, read your e-mails, etc.
Be very careful about what you leave on your system when you take it in for repair. If you sell a computer, as a minumum, reformat the drive - oh yeah, BTW - data can be recovered from a drive that has been formatted, but most people (even a lot of so-called computer techs) don't know this and even fewer people have the tools to do it.
Aren't computers great?!?!!!
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BobG
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #5 on: May 9th, 2005, 3:38am » |
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Quote:Aren't computers great?!?!!!
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LMAO  I don't care who you are, now that's funny.
My computer is nothing more than an $800 deck of cards and a way to put jigsaw puzzles together. It also collects a lot of dust. I have no personal anything in mine. I pay no bills on-line.
Next year when I retire one of the first things I'm going to do is toss that computer over the wall into the neighbor's pool (and hope it hits their dog first).
The only reason I'm on a computer now is because I like to screw my employer out of 8 hours pay.
One of these days the WWW/internet is going to die and this world will stop rotating.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
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Lizzie2
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #6 on: May 9th, 2005, 5:24am » |
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We take our computers for repair to one person in particular at a family-owned computer store for this very reason. He's built quite a degree of trust with us, and I have no reservations about the times he's had to burn my entire hard drive as I was switching laptops. He's a good guy.
Think about these implications for HIPAA with protected health information. On my first or second day of nursing school, someone from the legal department came to talk to us and told us about stories where such things would happen - but it would be hundred's of people's pharmaceutical records still traceable on computers donated and sold from CVS. That's bad news.
Any computer with any sensitive research material on it whatsoever here at Jefferson cannot be donated or sold. It has to be physically destroyed when it is done being used. There are too many concerns with people's private health info being leaked out.
Can't be too careful!
Lizzie
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ExplodingEyeBall
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #7 on: May 9th, 2005, 12:00pm » |
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This is a fun one to read.
I do a lot of fixes, adware removals, rebuilds, and upgrades for people.
I ALWAYS tell them to backup and remove anything that is sensitive or could be embarrasing before I get the system
The last one I worked on belonged to the daughter of a (very powerful) co-worker. I warned her to remove any files she didn't want people to see. I found out that she has a webcam and uses it. A LOT!!!
Since she is of age, I didn't say anything to anyone. I didn't tell her either although, I think she knows that I saw the stuff.
Of every 10 personal systems I work on, at least 6 of them have stuff like this on it.
Don't leave this kind of stuff on your system if you are getting it worked on. People who work on systems almost always scan through the hard drive.
If you have a tech who you trust, this just means that he is polite enough not to tell you what he saw. When I am working on someones system, it is usually for the purpose of removing spyware or a virus. When I am doing this, I check EVERY folder and EVERY file.
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Just poke out my eye and get it over with!!!
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ExplodingEyeBall
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #8 on: May 9th, 2005, 12:03pm » |
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on May 9th, 2005, 5:24am, Lizzie2 wrote: sold. It has to be physically destroyed when it is done being used. There are too many concerns with people's private health info being leaked out.
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Why destroy a good computer? Remove the hard drive. That's where the data is.
Keep the old hard drive and open it up. It makes a neat little mirror. You can remove the magnets from them to make some neat toys too.
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Just poke out my eye and get it over with!!!
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purpleydog
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #9 on: May 9th, 2005, 12:41pm » |
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on May 9th, 2005, 12:00pm, ExplodingEyeBall wrote:
People who work on systems almost always scan through the hard drive.
If you have a tech who you trust, this just means that he is polite enough not to tell you what he saw. When I am working on someones system, it is usually for the purpose of removing spyware or a virus. When I am doing this, I check EVERY folder and EVERY file. |
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And the first thing a tech looks for is the porn on your system. In case you have anything good. 
It's all on the hard drive. Even if you thought it was deleted, it can be recovered.
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Opus
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #10 on: May 9th, 2005, 12:47pm » |
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If you are selling or giving away a computer the best thing to do is to shred the hard drive. Get the Ultimate Boot CD , then boot with it, hit F2, then go to Hard drive wiping, then pick one. I use Boot and Nuke, but they all should work fine. Use a min. of 3 times overwrite and nobody but the Government should be able to recover your data. When it is clean put you favourite flavor of GNU/Linux on it and your all set.
I have found that wiping can usually fix a hard drive that reports as bad. Strange that removing every last bit of a certain software manufactures operating system could fix a drive, but it does in most cases.
Opus/Paul 
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| « Last Edit: May 9th, 2005, 12:57pm by Opus » |
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Azrael
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #11 on: May 9th, 2005, 9:56pm » |
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I think everyone should be very paranoid... Wipe the hard drive 16 times, remove it from the computer, and smash it real good with a sledgehammer, then throw every little piece of it into a blast furnace until nothing but slag is left. Problem solved. Then ya can take the system in for maintenance without worrying about your privacy being breached.
PFDAN...................................... Drk^Angel
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purpleydog
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #12 on: May 9th, 2005, 10:21pm » |
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on May 9th, 2005, 9:56pm, Drk^Angel wrote:I think everyone should be very paranoid... Wipe the hard drive 16 times, remove it from the computer, and smash it real good with a sledgehammer, then throw every little piece of it into a blast furnace until nothing but slag is left. Problem solved. Then ya can take the system in for maintenance without worrying about your privacy being breached.
PFDAN...................................... Drk^Angel |
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A paranoid after my own heart. 
You said it...
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ExplodingEyeBall
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #13 on: May 10th, 2005, 9:08am » |
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A simpler answer is to just NOT put anything on your computer that could come back to bite you.
My financial data isn't that big of a deal. If someone wants to see how broke I am, I don't care.
I also don't put stuff on my hard drive that would embarass me. That's what floppy disks and flash drives are for.
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Just poke out my eye and get it over with!!!
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Kirk
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Re: PC Service warning....
« Reply #14 on: May 10th, 2005, 11:26am » |
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I keep my drive encrypted. If I am going to resell it after an upgrade. I format it (file sys. ext3) and write zeros to the drive.
Don't stop using Microsoft though. I need the money
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