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The chances of a specific geek squad 'operative' chancing upon a 'target' the FBI is interested in is so low and minuscule one has to wonder how its worth it un

by throw2016 10y ago

The chances of a specific geek squad 'operative' chancing upon a 'target' the FBI is interested in is so low and minuscule one has to wonder how its worth it unless they are operating a dragnet or the FBI has too many people on staff. If the bar is so low one has to wonder how many high value companies are not infiltrated by FBI, NSA and other 3 letter agencies. When commentators here suggest the answer to privacy or surveillance is 'technical' it comes across as false empowerment. How can individuals or groups win against nation state actors with near endless resources, time, influence, power and armies of bureaucrats and engineers working 24/7 to achieve objectives? It's a nonstarter and the solution has to be socio-political. The law doesn't stop them, if anything they are adept at skirting around laws, misleading judges, working the system and banding together to protect themselves. Even worse there is zero consequence when things blow up, and its those leaking information who are hounded.

Spooky23 10y ago
You might be surprised. I've worked in large scale IT and I'm aware of investigations and convictions of people having this shit on corporate devices. For a national chain like BestBuy serving the general public, they probably have an incident weekly. This article was light in details. Seeing this type of material is traumatizing, and it's important to give employees clear protocols to follow so there's as little question as possible about what to do. I find the compensation for tips potentially troubling, but there isn't much context. There's a lot of smoke in this article, but not a ton of fire regarding specifics.
- throw2016 10y ago
  This is not smoke, it's a smoking gun. Protecting employees from child porn and trauma is no doubt a sensitive issue but given the article does not even touch on that this just muddies the waters. The focus here was on FBI's illegal data collection methods, misleading judges and recruiting operatives in best buy. These geek squad staff are for all essential purposes FBI operatives and as detailed in the article at one time there were 8 operatives including the manager in a single location! It will be amiss to expect more evidence or 'context' than this. If the FBI can expend so much energy and time on lowly geek squad how much time do they expend on Facebook, Google, Intel, Amd, Linux, VC Funds, security standards, industry standards. The list goes on. Things are seriously broken but many of us seem to be in a kind of denial quick to think the worst of others while failing to hold ourselves accountable to the same high standards.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    Read a better article. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/if-a-best-buy-technician-is-a-paid-fbi-informant-are-his-computer-searches-legal/2017/01/09/f56028b4-d442-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/if-a-best... There are details missing in the story posted here. For one, the Louisville facility is a large service facility where at least some employees specialize in data recovery. This isn't a case of the whole service department in a BestBuy being deputized. BestBuy also specificly stated that they do not condone employees accepting payment. I'm not justifying what is or isn't happening. Just pointing out that there are a lot of holes in the story.
    - AnimalMuppet 10y ago
      > BestBuy also specificly stated that they do not condone employees accepting payment. "Do not condone" is different from "you're fired if you do that". BestBuy's position needs to be that it will fire people for this kind of stunt. If nothing else, it's tarnishing the brand's image.

Spooky23 10y ago

You might be surprised. I've worked in large scale IT and I'm aware of investigations and convictions of people having this shit on corporate devices. For a national chain like BestBuy serving the general public, they probably have an incident weekly. This article was light in details. Seeing this type of material is traumatizing, and it's important to give employees clear protocols to follow so there's as little question as possible about what to do. I find the compensation for tips potentially troubling, but there isn't much context. There's a lot of smoke in this article, but not a ton of fire regarding specifics.

throw2016 10y ago
This is not smoke, it's a smoking gun. Protecting employees from child porn and trauma is no doubt a sensitive issue but given the article does not even touch on that this just muddies the waters. The focus here was on FBI's illegal data collection methods, misleading judges and recruiting operatives in best buy. These geek squad staff are for all essential purposes FBI operatives and as detailed in the article at one time there were 8 operatives including the manager in a single location! It will be amiss to expect more evidence or 'context' than this. If the FBI can expend so much energy and time on lowly geek squad how much time do they expend on Facebook, Google, Intel, Amd, Linux, VC Funds, security standards, industry standards. The list goes on. Things are seriously broken but many of us seem to be in a kind of denial quick to think the worst of others while failing to hold ourselves accountable to the same high standards.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  Read a better article. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/if-a-best-buy-technician-is-a-paid-fbi-informant-are-his-computer-searches-legal/2017/01/09/f56028b4-d442-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/if-a-best... There are details missing in the story posted here. For one, the Louisville facility is a large service facility where at least some employees specialize in data recovery. This isn't a case of the whole service department in a BestBuy being deputized. BestBuy also specificly stated that they do not condone employees accepting payment. I'm not justifying what is or isn't happening. Just pointing out that there are a lot of holes in the story.
  - AnimalMuppet 10y ago
    > BestBuy also specificly stated that they do not condone employees accepting payment. "Do not condone" is different from "you're fired if you do that". BestBuy's position needs to be that it will fire people for this kind of stunt. If nothing else, it's tarnishing the brand's image.