When you need to drop off your tech devices for a repair, how confident are you that they won’t be snooped on?

CBC’s Marketplace took smartphones and laptops to repair stores across Ontario — including large chains Best Buy and Mobile Klinik — and found that in more than half of the documented cases, technicians accessed intimate photos and private information not relevant to the repair.

Marketplace dropped off devices at 20 stores, ranging from small independent shops to medium-sized chains to larger national chains, after installing monitoring software on the devices. In total, 16 stores were recorded. (At four stores, the tracking software didn’t log anything, or the stores didn’t appear to turn the devices on.)

Technicians at nine stores accessed private data, including one technician who not only viewed photos but copied them onto a USB key.

  • mommykink@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is why we need a guarantee that tech workers are asexual before dropping off our devices for repair

    • EK13@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Linking this here just because I only discovered that Nathan For You episode yesterday and would hate for anyone to miss out on the reference: Youtube / Piped.

      Edit: fixed broken Piped link

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You could always have a lie detector added into the process to ensure they didn’t look. Though for some reason I think that may be a better fit for someone like a mechanic over tech repair.