Filed under: Odds and ends, PowerMac G5
Connecticut man consults Apple Genius and gets arrested
Editor's Note: Some comments to this post suggest that TUAW is "giving advice to pedophiles" by reminding readers that sensitive information could be read or copied by service technicians when you bring your Mac in for repair. While one assumes (present example to the contrary) that people who keep illegal content, such as child pornography or evidence of other crimes, on their computers would already be alert to the possibility of discovery, in this case we are addressing the innocent Mac users who would prefer to keep their personal, legal information private rather than inadvertently sharing it with the Geniuses. Another commenter objected to our publishing of the accused man's name; this information was revealed in the source article in the Stamford Advocate and we repeated it. The post has been edited to clarify the source of the name.
A Fairfield, Connecticut man took his Apple G5 desktop to the Genius Bar at the Stamford Town Center store complaining about some issues with his image file thumbnails. It seemed some thumbnails were overwriting thumbnails on other images and they didn't match up.
As reported in the Stamford Advocate, according to court documents, the Genius started examining the files, and allegedly found pictures of naked juvenile girls in suggestive poses.
The tech called a policeman who was stationed at the mall, and the customer Raymond Miller was promptly arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. If convicted, Miller faces a minimum of 5 years in jail.
Police also searched Miller's home, but found nothing illegal.
Remember, when you bring your Mac into a store for service the technicians will likely see whatever is on your machine in the course of repairing it.
The tech could have ignored the alleged porn, but that could likely make him an accessory under some state laws. Apple warns people to always have a good backup of their data when they bring something in for repair. It's also a good idea to remove anything you don't want anyone else to see -- financial data or home inventories, for example.
This incident is reminiscent of 2 cases in Florida where the Best Buy Geek Squad techs found illegal porn on computers brought in for repair. The employees reported the porn, and both men were arrested.
Then in an ironic turnabout, a three-month investigation by the Consumerist blog caught Geek Squad employees taking porn off a computer and sharing it with others. It was also alleged that some employees routinely stole music, pictures and other data from computers that were in for repair by copying the data off to personal thumb drives.
Via The Stamford Advocate and thanks to Doug for the tip.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Damien K. said 1:36PM on 8-25-2009
Now why would anyone want to take porn off a computer they have full access to? That's just absolutely aweful.
/sarcasm.
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Fred said 1:49PM on 8-25-2009
Not that I advocate illicit activity of any kind, and especially not the exploitation of kids, but seriously, if you're gonna be some kind of closet freak, you should probably learn to work on your own computer.
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ibis said 2:06PM on 8-25-2009
Remember, when you bring your Mac into a store for service the technicians will likely see whatever is on your machine in the course of repairing it.
Dude, I get the idea of saying 'take anything you want to keep private off your computer before you take it in for service,' but the way the article is written, it seems like the focus is "tech support can snoop through your stuff sometimes," as opposed to "yay, some sicko got busted because he was a moron!" It comes across like you're warning pedos that they'll get caught unless they take precautions. We should be applauding tech support employees who contact the authorities when they come across something as gross as child pornography on someone's computer.
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A User said 3:23PM on 8-25-2009
You need to look at things in two ways.
You are right but this article also letting the readers knows that we need to protect ourselves from identity thief etc. Not everyone can be trusted, both users or Apple employee.
One good guy report the cp but doesn't mean another tech will not look at your saved financial statement stored in your computer harddrive. And in fact, it is very likely. Otherwise, how would someone able to find those illegal stuff?
Tyrannous said 2:05PM on 8-25-2009
why are you warning pedos? natural selection at work.
especially if your home inventories include CP
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Izzy said 2:17PM on 8-25-2009
You got a purty mouth
sodapop said 4:56PM on 8-25-2009
I wish we would allow natural selection to work. There wouldn't be need for health care reform! LOL
Cy Starkman said 8:18PM on 8-25-2009
Actually, if we wanted natural selection, we would scrap health care entirely
Tironius said 2:08PM on 8-25-2009
I love how the article is written from the angle of *helping* Chester The Molester in not getting caught. "Remember, Chester, hide your kiddie rape pictures before going to the Genius Bar."
How about you *not* offer that advice, and perhaps more will be caught.
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Izzy said 2:23PM on 8-25-2009
All he did was state the obvious. Video of me boinking my son's kindergarten teacher is something I wouldn't want the Apple techs to see so point is on mark for the article.
The dude was stupid and got caught, but hasn't been convicted. Innocent until proven guilty in the USA (sometimes).
Fred said 3:30PM on 8-25-2009
How come people can't seem to separate things in their mind anymore? It's good that Chester got popped, but the way that it happened is vaguely disturbing. Again, I DO NOT advocate the exploitation of kids, but these same tactics could eventually be used to pursue other kinds of "crimes" that the Gov't deems illegal.
Without getting my tin foil hat out, I'd simply say that the point made by the author stands whether you like the circumstance under which it occurred or not.
Jordan said 9:34AM on 8-26-2009
You boink your sons kindergarten teacher? Is this because he can't pass it on his own?
Disco Ball said 2:25PM on 8-25-2009
I worked in Geek Squad for a year, and saw many PC's with porn all over them, but never any child pr0n, thankfully.
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Ryan Trevisol said 2:48PM on 8-25-2009
Even in private practice of Tech Supportry, you see plenty of porn. Which is interesting, since I usually got my clients by referral. Usually you can avoid looking at it, as it's usually tertiary to the reason you're working on the computer. Sometimes it's splayed across the screen as wallpaper. Sometimes people ask you to save their porn.
One guy whose hard drive was dying asked me to save a folder called "Sick S***" first. Because, he said, if he was going to have to reinstall all his software again, he might as well have something to do while he waited. Freak.
In that situation, you'd be a creep or a perv to check out what kind of stuff a person had. Just copy the folder and move on. But if a person comes in with an issue with pictures, and their thumbnails, well, guess what? The tech's going to be opening pictures on your hard drive.
The one with the Geek Squad is an interesting case. From what I recall, the guy had a DVD drive put in. And Mike Masnick (of Techdirt) came down all over them for their viewing of videos on the perv's computer as being unnecessary.
However, if they installed the DVD drive like proper tech drones, they would've installed all the bundled software. Including media player software. And it would behoove you to make sure that it could still open windows media, quicktime, etc, or else you're going to wind up with an irate customer saying none of his files will open.
And I'm not saying Geek Squad is blameless. I'm 110% sure that many techs, being single, dorky, lonely males, surf every computer that comes in for porn, music, or software.
But child porn is indefensible, and even if the tech who found it is a bigger freak for finding the child porn, Merv the Perv should still end up in jail.
Screw the Chester molesters said 2:27PM on 8-25-2009
Hell if I had ready access to thousands of songs I would steal them too hahahah but on another note stealing peoples pictures is kind of creepy considering what the pervos are probibly doing with your personal pictures they steal.... so girls stash your (no no pics) when you take your computer in to be serviced if you don't want to wind up on the Internet. And pedofiles watch your asses we the people with children and conscious behavors are out there waiting to send you some place where the tables turn on you and you become the victim.
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punkassjim said 3:16PM on 8-25-2009
Bonus points for embracing one type of criminal activity before denouncing another. Woo! LOL at "we the people with children and conscious behavors," because that's some funny sh*t!
BobCow said 2:28PM on 8-25-2009
What this porn you all are talking about? The interwebs have porn? How long has this been going on?
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Laerkai said 2:29PM on 8-25-2009
Should be Stamford Town Center, not Apple Town Center.
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Mel Martin said 2:40PM on 8-25-2009
Right you are. Corrected and thanks
Mel
Ben said 2:28PM on 8-25-2009
Ahh! I was there two days ago!
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