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Best Buy’s Geek Squad Techs Search Customer Computers For The FBI, Reports Claim

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

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Best Buy’s Geek Squad Techs Search Customer Computers For The FBI, Reports Claim

CBS
March 7, 2018

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A child pornography case against a California doctor has revealed that Geek Squad technicians have worked with the FBI to uncover data on customer’s computers for years. One non-profit is now saying that the nature of the FBI’s relationship with the techs may have violated the U.S. Constitution. Digital rights non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last year after it was discovered that the FBI allegedly paid Geek Squad employees to go through their client’s computers while they’re being repaired. EFF says their FOIA request discovered that Geek Squad’s parent company, Best Buy, has been working with the FBI for at least 10 years. A memo acquired in the lawsuit shows that Best Buy hosted a meeting and tour of their Kentucky repair facility for the FBI’s “Cyber Working Group” in 2008. The memo also admitted that agents “maintained close liaison with the Geek Squad’s management in an effort to glean case initiations and to support the division’s Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs.”

One such search led to felony child porn charges against Dr. Mark Rettenmaier after a technician reportedly went through the oncologist’s deleted files and called the FBI in 2011. In 2017, a judge ruled that the images found in Dr. Rettenmaier’s computer could not be considered child porn and the invasive search was illegal. All charges were dropped and the case was dismissed after Judge Cormac Carney said an FBI agent made “false and misleading statements” to obtain a search warrant for the doctor’s house. Other court records uncovered in the FOIA search found that Geek Squad techs were paid between $500 and $1,000 to actively search a client’s computer. The reports have raised concerns that the FBI is using Geek Squad to bypass the Fourth Amendment which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. A Best Buy spokesperson denied the claims in 2017. Jeff Shelman said their techs don’t do “anything other than what is necessary to solve the customer’s problem,” according to The Washington Post. The spokesperson added that if illegal material is found during those repairs, Geek Squad is obligated to contact law enforcement.
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I'll be damned. The Geek Squad is actually the Peek Squad.
 
FBI should have been smarter about that... Don't use that as freaking evidence... use it as an excuse to monitor/hack his computer at his home, and find your own evidence.
 
This may or may not apply but I was taught that in the court of law, it doesn't matter how a civilian got the evidence and it can be used in court. However law enforcement must abide by the constitution and they themselves can't use illegal methods to find evidence.
 
Maccabee said:
This may or may not apply but I was taught that in the court of law, it doesn't matter how a civilian got the evidence and it can be used in court. However law enforcement must abide by the constitution and they themselves can't use illegal methods to find evidence.
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A citizen acting on behalf of the police is subject to the same restrictions as the police themselves.
 
And they will suffer little blowback because Americans now generally approve of snitching, especially the young.

We are not that far away from being willing to live in a police state.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
And they will suffer little blowback because Americans now generally approve of snitching, especially the young.

We are not that far away from being willing to live in a police state.
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1984 ........ everyone a snitch, the thought police, war is peace, etc. .........
 
Hawkeye10 said:
And they will suffer little blowback because Americans now generally approve of snitching, especially the young.

We are not that far away from being willing to live in a police state.
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Nothing wrong with snitching when laws are being broken. It was the whole "snitches get stitches" that has enabled a lot of crime to continue unabated. Like murder, sexual assault etc etc.
 
cuban smokes said:
1984 ........ everyone a snitch, the thought police, war is peace, etc. .........
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Yep, but the Intelligentsia have sold fear so hard for so long that we are willing to trade freedom for shoddy promises of security.

Not to mention a lot of people feel that the current world order is crumbling, the shoddy work of the intelligentsia is out there in plain view, and when we do such a bad job of raising adults as we do fear is to be expected.If we were better we would at least make the attempt to overcome our fears.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Yep, but the Intelligentsia have sold fear so hard for so long that we are willing to trade freedom for shoddy promises of security.

Not to mention a lot of people feel that the current world order is crumbling, the shoddy work of the intelligentsia is out there in plan view, and when we do such a bad job of raising adults as we do fear is to be expected.If we were better we would at least make the attempt to overcome our fears.
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life has grabbed (most) Americans by their ***** ..............
 
cuban smokes said:
life has grabbed (most) Americans by their ***** ..............
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I dont think I would put it that way, we are poorly formed which makes us weak and stupid. My biggest bitch is that far too few people who know better have been willing to speak up over the years, which makes it almost impossible for the young to learn better. The only solution now is BIG PAIN, we are too far gone for anything else to work.
 
Are customers made aware of this prior?
 
Rogue Valley said:
Best Buy’s Geek Squad Techs Search Customer Computers For The FBI, Reports Claim



I'll be damned. The Geek Squad is actually the Peek Squad.
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It's pretty concerning. From here https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/...rth-Amendment-Safeguards-by-using-Geek-Squad:

According to court records in the prosecution of the doctor, Mark Rettenmaier, the scheme would work as follows: Customers with computer problems would take their devices to the Geek Squad for repair. Once Geek Squad employees had the devices, they would surreptitiously search the unallocated storage space on the devices for evidence of suspected child porn images and then report any hits to the FBI for criminal prosecution.

Court records show that some Geek Squad employees received $500 or $1,000 payments from the FBI.

At no point did the FBI get warrants based on probable cause before Geek Squad informants conducted these searches. Nor are these cases the result of Best Buy employees happening across potential illegal content on a device and alerting authorities.

Rather, the FBI was apparently directing Geek Squad workers to conduct fishing expeditions on people’s devices to find evidence of criminal activity. Prosecutors would later argue, as they did in Rettenmaier’s case, that because private Geek Squad personnel conducted the searches, there was no Fourth Amendment violation.
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If true and if it went on uncovered, those workers could have had a lot of power to put people away, if they just wanted an easy check or someone they wanted revenge against. I'm glad the court dropped the charges because of the way they obtained the evidence but it sucks it lets a perv off. Some of the FBI needs to get their stuff together.
 
This is why the government hates trials--the discovery process often reveals government law-breaking.

I have never used the Geek Squad, but have thought about it. Wow!
 
Kal'Stang said:
Nothing wrong with snitching when laws are being broken. It was the whole "snitches get stitches" that has enabled a lot of crime to continue unabated. Like murder, sexual assault etc etc.
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Except when the laws being broken are victimless crimes.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Best Buy’s Geek Squad Techs Search Customer Computers For The FBI, Reports Claim



I'll be damned. The Geek Squad is actually the Peek Squad.
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What I want to know is... in this case: One such search led to felony child porn charges against Dr. Mark Rettenmaier after a technician reportedly went through the oncologist’s deleted files and called the FBI in 2011. In 2017, a judge ruled that the images found in Dr. Rettenmaier’s computer could not be considered child porn and the invasive search was illegal. All charges were dropped and the case was dismissed after Judge Cormac Carney said an FBI agent made “false and misleading statements” to obtain a search warrant for the doctor’s house.

Why was the Best Buy Guy not charged?
 
Bodhisattva said:
What I want to know is... in this case: One such search led to felony child porn charges against Dr. Mark Rettenmaier after a technician reportedly went through the oncologist’s deleted files and called the FBI in 2011. In 2017, a judge ruled that the images found in Dr. Rettenmaier’s computer could not be considered child porn and the invasive search was illegal. All charges were dropped and the case was dismissed after Judge Cormac Carney said an FBI agent made “false and misleading statements” to obtain a search warrant for the doctor’s house.

Why was the Best Buy Guy not charged?
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An FBI informant? Are they protected? :shrug:
 
Bodhisattva said:
What I want to know is... in this case: One such search led to felony child porn charges against Dr. Mark Rettenmaier after a technician reportedly went through the oncologist’s deleted files and called the FBI in 2011. In 2017, a judge ruled that the images found in Dr. Rettenmaier’s computer could not be considered child porn and the invasive search was illegal. All charges were dropped and the case was dismissed after Judge Cormac Carney said an FBI agent made “false and misleading statements” to obtain a search warrant for the doctor’s house.

Why was the Best Buy Guy not charged?
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Or why was Best Buy not not sued into oblivion??? The geek squads are best buy employees/representative's are they not? Seem like that would make BB liable.

djl
 
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