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Are Computer Technicians Legally Allowed Look Though Clients Files?
A Pennsylvania man was caught possessing child pornography by a Circuit City computer technician. The technician called the police who seized the computer and arrested the man when he returned to pick it up. With child porn as evidence on the mans computer, it should be an open and shut case right? Wrong.
As you probably know, a policeman needs a warrant to search your house for any illegal items. This warrant allows the policeman to obtain the evidence in a legal manner. The big question is, was the child porn evidence in this case obtained legally? Should the technician have been looking though the files in the first place? Read on.
What happened according to the court documents was back in 2004, Kenneth Sodomsky brought his computer into a Circuit City store so their technicians could install a DVD burner.
After they installed the DVD Burner, one of the technicians tested the burning software by searching the hard drive for video files to play back. The search results returned with some video files with illegal sounding names (eg. 14yr_boy_xxx.avi). The technician opened one of the videos which listed a male name and an age of 13 or 14 and it appeared to be child pornography.
Of course, the technician called the police who seized the computer and then the owner after he came to pick it up.
This case is tricky because there is a question whether the technician invaded the clients rights to privacy. If the client had an expectation of privacy then the allegedly incriminating files could potentially be suppressed. If not, they could be used as evidence against him.
The court eventually ruled that the client gave Circuit City access to the hard drive and consented to them installing a DVD drive. The court also noticed that the technicians weren’t aggressively searching though the clients files for anything illegal, but were instead testing that the drive is functioning in a “commercially acceptable manner”. The illegal files were then able to be used as evidence and the case was sent back to the trial judge for additional proceedings.
Excerpts from the courts opinion:
The court implies that the DVD drive should be been tested by inserting and playing a DVD instead of searching for a video file to play. Nevertheless, the client didn’t ask how the burner would be tested nor did he place and restrictions on his files.
The computer technicians testimony indicated that the playing of videos on the computer was a method of ensuring the DVD burner was working properly. Also, once the video search was initiated the list of the clients videos automatically appeared. The technician was free to select any video for testing purposes since the client had not restricted access to any files. Therefor, the technician did not actively engage in searching though the clients files for anything illegal.
The result of this case was:
“If a person is aware of, or freely grants to a third party, potential access to his computer contents, he has knowingly exposed the contents of his computer to the public and has lost any reasonable expectation of privacy in those contents.”
So there you have it, it was legal in Pennsylvania. Though, your mileage may vary in your own state or country.
What do you guys think of this case? Drop us a comment.
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It sucks to catch some sick stuff like that. I hoped I never had to, but with it being all over the media
Thanks for the court’s opinion… that’s really good to know. Guess we should include an additional line on the invoice about a privacy disclaimer.
They are only picking up these skills from the CompTIA A+ test, alot of the questions on that test mandate you to “tell” on clients and co-workers if you want to pass lol
Personally I’m not sure what I’d do if i were put in that position… I’d be shocked but i don’t know if I’d report it i mean it’s none of my business and it’s not my job to report or look for these things….
but then again something tells me ignoring it would be wrong because of the fact that that child in that picture/video is being forced into these acts (weather you want to believe that or not) and some of these kids grow up and turn against the world not to mention i can imagine it’s torture, humiliation and haunting for most as they age and should be done to NO child… and it’s sick
As for weather it is legal or not i think it’s all in the hands of the country and also the contracts or papers signed. I find it even more disturbing that these things STILL happens daily even after numerous public arrest. st knowing someone will be looking at your PC and keeping the name exactly as it is “14yr_boy_xxx.avi” WTF? these idiots still keep it out there in the open, that’s just stupid and deserves a whole new charge itself.
He should have backed up those files before bringing his computer in for service. If only he had a DVD burner…
Lol Josh that was amusing but anyhow I think it was fine to search for file to burn to disc and being a DVD burner video files would be the proper material. The tech stumbled onto it in a manner which is perfectly acceptable for testing. This is not the first case of finding such material on a PC brought into a shop if Im not mistaken. Handing over your equipment gives the tech rights to access your files unless you rstrict them in some manner. The tech has the right to bypass your security measure if it is in the process of repairing the equipment say a virus or spyware removal and it detects a possible cause within that secured file.
What do I think?
I think he brought his machine in to Circuit City, and he should damn well have known that the high school students running the tech department are going to search through every picture and video on the machine looking for porn, every time.
The same will happen at any chainstore. Sure, the techs claim they were just looking for something to test with, but in reality, they chose to search his machine for videos because they wanted to see what he had, no other reason.
Agreed JohnR, I think they were actively looking for porn. I know techies at the local shops personaly and some actually have their own collection of porn they got from customers systems. The fact remains that he still had child porn and should be jailed for it. If you carry your car to be detailed and the poeple working there find cocain under the seat whos fault is that?
I thought it was only illegal for a police officer or an agent for the police to do a search without a warrant? Being a third party I would guess it can be used. The guy could probably sue Circuit City in court though. It sounds like the technician was snooping, but then again, if he had permission to work on the machine. Yes I agree, the child pornographer should have been arrested.
The answer is simple. NO.
I raised the same question to the FBI a while back, we are not allowed in any way to “seek” out information which may incriminate the end user.
HOWEVER.
If you are doing your job as the customer requested. And you have no choice but to view something, and it is illegal, then yes you are to report it right away.
I would be more worried about the requirement for turning somebody in if you did find something. If for instance you backing up the users data and as you copying you see some incriminating files in thier my docs file. Would you have to report it and if you don’t what happens if pedo ever gets caught, could the authorities come back to you with charges for keeping it under wraps? (unlikely im sure but you never know)
I’m computer technician/small business owner with 8+ years experience and I have experienced this situation. = NOT pleasant =
A customer brought in a PC for a Tune-Up, complaining his PC was too slow, yada yada… He placed no restrictions on file access, nor did the customer indicate “personal” files.
Part of our tune-up is inspect for empty folders via Windopws Explorer. However, when Windows Explorer is opened, the default folder view is My Documents. Low and behold were more than 2,000 child/infant porn images. We contacted our local FBI office. Two agents quickly showed up and requested to view what we had seen. Upon seeing the child porn, the agents immediately seized the PC and arrested the customer when he came to pick up the PC.
In Federal Court the customer’s Attorney challenged prosecution with the Right To Privacy Act. His arguement failed. He is now serving 15+ to life in a Federal Prison.
My advice: if someone has child porn on their PC and places that PC with contents in a public arena (a computer repair shop), then the idiot has it coming when he/she gets arrested.
I have actually never had a customer tell me that certain files were off-limits or private. I think of the customer did tell me this I will probably not work on the system. If you have files on your system that are so private that the technician has to walk eggshells while working on it then you probably need to have that data backed up elsewhere and just delete it from your system before bringing it in, or learn how to work on computers yourself.It’s really very simple if you don’t want to get in trouble with the law then don’t have illegal things on your computer.
I’m surprised the defendant thought he might have legal grounds to avoid prison. If you live next door to an axe murderer and the reason you found out was because your dog kept climbing under the fence and digging up human body parts. I don’t think just because the dog discovered it, and he didn’t have a warrant would stop the police from knocking down the mans door and searching the property and this person going to jail.
“Agent of the Police” is the key phrase. If I were a cop and you asked me if your should look for porn on others computer – I have to answer no or you become my agent.
If you do it anyway, after I told you no, without my prior knowledge, it is admissible. The point is to stop police from getting a friend to illegally search on their behalf.
FYI – You have no constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure by anyone other than the government (or their agent).
Look up the term “accessory after the fact”. If you find out about the crime, after it happens and conceal it (or distribute the porn back to the owner) – you might be your client’s cell mate.
If they only replaced a DVD drive or any sort of optical drive, what would be the purpose in looking for a VIDEO file to play since it would have NO effect on weather or not the drive was correctly installed? Wouldn’t they use a DVD to test it with? They weren’t installing codecs, so I really don’t understand how this all came about.