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I assumed they did that for free.

• Bartweiss 10y ago
  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).
• acveilleux 10y ago
  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.