this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023

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We caught technicians at Best Buy, Mobile Klinik, Canada Computers and others snooping on our personal devices (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

93 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] AllHailTheSheep 106 points 10 months ago (2 children)

as a technician myself, I hate this. I truly don't understand why any tech would ever do any snooping. I fix dozens of devices a day, I need the password so I can test the new part and make sure everything is working as it should be after the repair. I'm far to busy and apathetic to give a shit what people have on their devices.

side note, for those of y'all with Samsung phones, there's a maintenance mode that will allow the tech to test everything after the repair but not access any data on your device.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How would I go about putting my device in maintenance mode? Iirc that was only available for repairs at Samsung Authorized stores?

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago

Settings -> Battery & Device Care -> Maintenance Mode

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

I truly don’t understand why any tech would ever do any snooping.

You don't understand that some people are just dirt bags?

[–] [email protected] 51 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Unsurprising. Most repair shops will ask for your PW to "test that the device works". If it is for a battery change, or screen fix or whatnot, refuse to give it! It is not required. They can confirm the fix just by accessing the lock screen itself.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

Shitty people will do shitty things. That said, if you don't give your password, be prepared to have the technician test all sorts of stuff in front of you. The selfie camera, ear speaker, microphone, etc. sometimes are mounted on the screen. If there are problems, the tech will need to redo the repair. Not advocating for giving your pw, but be prepared for the process to be less convenient.

Edit: My bad, should have clarified I'm talking about phones exclusively. If you're worried about your computer, create a non-admin user and give them that password. If they had the skills to bypass that, they wouldn't be working at a repair shop.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (4 children)

If they had the skills to bypass that, they wouldn't be working at a repair shop.

What are you talking about? I worked at a geek squad back in college days and no one there needed your admin password to get into your computer. We'd just remove the password. The only reason we asked for your password was so you'd get your computer back with the password still on it, lol...

I'm more shocked that none of the techs found the monitoring software and assumed it was something malicious and disabled or removed it...

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If someone has physical access to your device, they also have the ability to access your files without your password. Unless you are using sophisticated full disk encryption, but that makes it more time consuming to gain access.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I wish Android still had full-disk encryption. It was dropped in Android 10 for file-based encryption, but as far as I know the keys are just somewhere on the device. But I am not sure about that. Like 10%.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

They'll be in a hardware security module, just like the computer should be storing encryption keys with the tpm. Tbh I don't know what's actively implemented but definitely on the devices I manage in MDM they're non-compliant without that. I'm sure you probably can get cheap devices without though. Just like you can get home level laptops without tpm.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

A lot of times, the camera/earpiece speaker/microphone cables are really fragile and tolerances are tight. The phone isn't designed to be opened. You should, therefore, make sure they work after the repair by making a test call.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And perhaps some kind of alarm to alert when a sexual person is in the repair area.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

(Debatably) hot, single, tech support near you!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] funkless_eck 5 points 10 months ago

lie detectors are themselves lies anyway lol.

just clench your anus, breathe in and breathe out before every answer.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 10 months ago

I have never - ever - dropped a device off anywhere.

I have spent hours and hours learning new skills, trouble shooting, and engaging in forums with people who know better than me.

But just drop it off? Never.

Wait wait.

I dropped off my ps2 to get modded.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Haha holy shit, the Canada Computers statement that photos weren't accessed inappropriately & that the employee in question was disciplined, shortly followed by a picture of the technician outright copying only these files to the USB drive. These people are scum

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is why I won't repair any device I can't fix myself (which unfortunately is most of them, I'm not very tech literate).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (14 children)

if you are technical enough to replace a hard drive then when you buy a computer also buy an extra drive. day1 build your machine or recover to the new drive. keep original drive in case of repair need. it also helps to troubleshoot if your problem is hardware or software.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

This shit has been happening since I was still in high school, 20 years ago. Fuck these places.

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