5 ms·

I've worked in these contract cellphone repair/refurbishment facilities many years ago, the big warehouses where telecoms and manufacturers send these warranty

I've worked in these contract cellphone repair/refurbishment facilities many years ago, the big warehouses where telecoms and manufacturers send these warranty phones to be triaged and repaired, and let me tell you, something like this is not surprising at all. Most of the people there did good work, but all it takes is one. Personally I'd never send my phone in to repair, and I'm skittish about buying any refurbished phones.

kingcharles 5y ago
I had to buy dozens of old phones on eBay once for testing a new SMS product and I can tell you that most of the phones were not wiped and lots had naughty photos and videos still on them :|
- mythrwy 5y ago
  Maybe because thieves can't be assed to wipe the phone before putting on ebay?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
arbuge 5y ago
I bought 2 "refurbished" Google Assistant smart speakers from Ebay over the last year or so. Bought of them came still logged in to their prior owner's Google accounts. All that was necessary on the part of the refurbishers was to spend a few seconds doing a factory reset (which was the first thing I did at my end), but even that was too much to ask, apparently.
ilamont 5y ago
Years ago I had some friends who worked in a local photo shop, and once I stopped by and they showed me around. This was in the days when 99% of the population developed film and made prints by dropping off the little canisters at such shops with an order form. It usually took a few days to get them back. Everyone made assumptions that the process for developing photos was anonymous and private - you dropped off a canister, and picked up photos and negatives in a clean, sealed envelope a few days later. How wrong we were. The process was semi-automated using these gargantuan machines in a back room, but the staff usually looked at each frame as went through the process. They made extra copies of spicy ones which went straight into a special binder kept on a nearby shelf. This shop had two or three of these binders. Some years later I was in another country and photographed violent demonstrations right outside the hostel where I was staying. When I went to pick up the photos, the staff made it clear that they had seen the images. They were supportive (they wanted to get the word out internationally) but what if copies had been sent to the local intelligence services instead? Nowadays the tech is different, but when there are no barriers to viewing private information, we see similar types of behavior.
- cptskippy 5y ago
  I believe there child endangerment and copyright laws in place in the US that permit lab technicians to review film and turn over images to law enforcement or deny services for copyrighted material. Keeping a spank bank isn't permitted but you should never assume your film will be private if it's being processed by a lab.
- tpmx 5y ago
  One Hour Photo (2002), starring Robin Williams. (I might rewatch it, it's been a while.)
  - ilamont 5y ago
    I didn't see the movie, but I recall the ads. The experiences I described were >10 years prior to 2002, so there was zero references for me to understand what was going on until my friends pulled back the curtain. And it was an utter shock. Not only the fact that the photo shop employees had a window into our private lives and were saving copies for future reference, but what other people's private lives were like. "Spicy" ran the gamut from wife nudes to borderline Blue Velvet. It was one of those 10-minute experiences that totally shifts one's understanding of the world.
q1w2 5y ago
I had a friend who worked in a place like this and he admitted that they regularly went through people's albums specifically to look for nudes/videos. Especially if it seemed to belong to a young woman. It was routine - to the point that looking for nudes became boring.
stjohnswarts 5y ago
I would guess they (if they're not LARPing) wouldn't do this if they could just afford a new phone.

kingcharles 5y ago

I had to buy dozens of old phones on eBay once for testing a new SMS product and I can tell you that most of the phones were not wiped and lots had naughty photos and videos still on them :|

mythrwy 5y ago
Maybe because thieves can't be assed to wipe the phone before putting on ebay?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

arbuge 5y ago

I bought 2 "refurbished" Google Assistant smart speakers from Ebay over the last year or so. Bought of them came still logged in to their prior owner's Google accounts. All that was necessary on the part of the refurbishers was to spend a few seconds doing a factory reset (which was the first thing I did at my end), but even that was too much to ask, apparently.

ilamont 5y ago

Years ago I had some friends who worked in a local photo shop, and once I stopped by and they showed me around. This was in the days when 99% of the population developed film and made prints by dropping off the little canisters at such shops with an order form. It usually took a few days to get them back. Everyone made assumptions that the process for developing photos was anonymous and private - you dropped off a canister, and picked up photos and negatives in a clean, sealed envelope a few days later. How wrong we were. The process was semi-automated using these gargantuan machines in a back room, but the staff usually looked at each frame as went through the process. They made extra copies of spicy ones which went straight into a special binder kept on a nearby shelf. This shop had two or three of these binders. Some years later I was in another country and photographed violent demonstrations right outside the hostel where I was staying. When I went to pick up the photos, the staff made it clear that they had seen the images. They were supportive (they wanted to get the word out internationally) but what if copies had been sent to the local intelligence services instead? Nowadays the tech is different, but when there are no barriers to viewing private information, we see similar types of behavior.

cptskippy 5y ago
I believe there child endangerment and copyright laws in place in the US that permit lab technicians to review film and turn over images to law enforcement or deny services for copyrighted material. Keeping a spank bank isn't permitted but you should never assume your film will be private if it's being processed by a lab.
tpmx 5y ago
One Hour Photo (2002), starring Robin Williams. (I might rewatch it, it's been a while.)
- ilamont 5y ago
  I didn't see the movie, but I recall the ads. The experiences I described were >10 years prior to 2002, so there was zero references for me to understand what was going on until my friends pulled back the curtain. And it was an utter shock. Not only the fact that the photo shop employees had a window into our private lives and were saving copies for future reference, but what other people's private lives were like. "Spicy" ran the gamut from wife nudes to borderline Blue Velvet. It was one of those 10-minute experiences that totally shifts one's understanding of the world.

q1w2 5y ago

I had a friend who worked in a place like this and he admitted that they regularly went through people's albums specifically to look for nudes/videos. Especially if it seemed to belong to a young woman. It was routine - to the point that looking for nudes became boring.

stjohnswarts 5y ago

I would guess they (if they're not LARPing) wouldn't do this if they could just afford a new phone.