FBI Is Apparently Paying Geek Squad Members to Dig Around in Computers | Hacker News Reader

FBI Is Apparently Paying Geek Squad Members to Dig Around in Computers

techdirt.com

90 pointsbhartzer33 comments

Key takeaway: "Private searches are acceptable, but the introduction of cash payments, as well as the FBI having an official liaison with Best Buy suggests the searches aren't really "private." Instead, the FBI appears to be using private searches to route around warrant requirements."

The FBI is paying Geek Squad members for discoveries, not as direct employees. This has two awful impacts. First, it incentivizes searching every single computer touched, rather than just reacting to suspicions or FBI requests. Second, the 'commission' nature of the payments is being used to argue that these are "private searches" exempt from warrant requirements, which are only connected to the FBI after the fact (despite what is apparently a standing expectation of commission).

The amounts are also concerningly small. How much would it cost to bribe one of these "unofficial deputies" to plant evidence?

Exactly! How on Earth could you prove an offending image wasn't yours?

In fact the case referenced in the article ran into this. The image was recovered from unassigned space on the drive and therefore there was not even any data about where it came from (that could be faked too but at least it gives you something to disprove).

Honestly, I've always been surprised that intelligence paychecks of all kinds aren't larger, for informants or agents. I know government salaries are generally constrained (especially for highly-skilled work), but surely one helpful step for fighting subversion is to insure that your employees are living comfortably?

I don't view child porn, but I still never let techs look at my drives. You never know what they'll do with your data.

As an example, one Geek Squad tech took a female art student's naked art photos and shared them online: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/suit-claims-best-bu...

This would be bad enough on its own, but fact that the techs are paid per discovery is what's really terrifying. This is going to fall straight into the Cobra effect: when you pay people to discover X, there will suddenly be lots more X to be found, most of it unreal. Except instead of just wasted bounty money, it's going to be people going to prison.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect

The FBI has been repeatedly caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/06/u-s-attorneys-office-f...

http://www.mintpressnews.com/fbi-planted-bugs-california-cou...

When caught they feign a mixture of complete denial, ignorance, and "I didn't know it was illegal", and they are approximately never held personally responsible by judges.

Of course they are.

Wow. It's like the bad news just keeps coming. They already have massive powers to conduct investigations.

It's not enough power. It's never enough.

On a related note, I'm looking to start taking digital privacy/security more seriously. Not because I'm worried about anything in particular, but because I'd like to not enable purposeful tracking or collection of my information.

Anyway, what are the best practices for this, for someone that lives in the US? Email, smartphone, laptop, etc?

Should I bother with setting up my own email server on a VPS? What about cloud storage, calendar, etc? Should I use services like Todoist? How do I limit the tracking, resale, and use of my smartphone info for ads? Is LUKS a good idea for my laptop?

Is there a place online that has some guidance for this stuff? Who can give me a clue about what's a good idea and what isn't?

https://prism-break.org/en/all/

One thing that I've been investigating is that apparently if your email is hosted by a third party, then it's not covered by the Fourth Amendment. As far as I can tell, if you host the physical hardware in your home, it is covered.

Heard so many bad things about best buy and geek squad over the years. Amazed they are still in business.

Maybe it'll turn out like Dell and other computer makers who at some points were only in the black because of Intel payola. It undermines their entire offering but a "market solution" isn't possible to punish these offenses because the payola protects the offender.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/23/technology/dell_intel/

How does Apple guard against such infiltrators tarnishing their brand?

They don't. When bringing a laptop in for service, you either give them your password and admin access or you let them wipe your hard drive. Assuming your drive is encrypted, of course. The latter seems a lot more acceptable in light of this article as I'm sure Best Buy employees are not the only ones getting kickbacks from the FBI.

I doubt they are. Disk encryption (FileVault) may be somewhat more common on Macs than on your average Windows machine, but I still bet it's more the exception than the rule. I don't think it's enabled by default and I doubt most people go to the work of enabling it.

> Disk encryption (FileVault) may be somewhat more common on Macs than on your average Windows machine

When I drop off my Mac at a Genius Bar it's always a fight to not give them my password. Sometimes, I give up and format. Can't imagine most Apple customers go through that hassle.

It's been the default for the last 3 years (since Yosemite), you have to actively decide to turn it off during the setup wizard.

I don't think that's right. I always do clean installs of major Mac releases and I don't recall setup ever prompting me about Filevault.

Now you have me questing my recollection.

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/new-filevault-2...

It won't show up based on a number of criteria, your recollection may be correct but you may be running into this.

The Geek Squad is a Best Buy brand, not Apple. So I don't think there is anything specific that Apple needs to do here.

The FBI would just bribe geek squad employees and not genius bar employees because ... ???

I assumed they did that for free.

They do, but it's actually worse that they're getting paid.

The incident prompting this article is a child pornography case - which would be fine, since there's a reporting requirement for techs even without pay. But rather than getting reports on incidental discoveries, the FBI is apparently paying techs for each discovery; effectively using them as commission-based employees.

That's bad because it creates an incentive to search every customer's files for anything reportable, but it's awful because it allows the FBI to rout around warrant restrictions. "Private searches" are legal without warrants, so rather than paying people to do searches (nonprivate), the FBI is giving them money for results (nominally private, with nonprivate motivations).

If it was for free, the FBI would get tipped off when a Geek Squad employee accidentally came upon something incriminating. No worries there.

By paying them 500$ (remembering that Geek Squad pay is shit) they incentivize the GS employees to go out of their way to snoop and, quite frankly, to try to broaden the range of what is incriminating as far as they can get away with while still getting a commission. How long before someone with a need for cash decides to plant evidence?

This is different. It's a fishing expedition outsourced to skirt over the 4th amendment.

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