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View Full Version : To PC repair people/tech support - tell the truth



JacobRogers
May 21st, 2007, 12:36 PM
Do we have any people that repair computers or do technical support? If you have a computer in your possession that your fixing, do you ever take a less than professional look around the hard drive and try to get a feel for the personality or lifestyle of the person that owns the computer. Like looking in the photo folders, seeing whats on their play list, or looking through browser history?

Tell the truth.

LaRoza
May 21st, 2007, 12:48 PM
It is not my profession, but I do help people with their computers. Not for money, but the casual "Something's wrong, could you look at my computer?".

I never look at personal folders and data, people seem devoted to showing you all their pictures anyway and I am not a nosy person.

Am I sensing a hint of guilt from the OP?

kc0eks
May 21st, 2007, 01:01 PM
I repair PC's as a business and I can honestly say I havent purposely looked through anyones files who was a customer. I have seen some things the user wouldnt have wanted me to see, but thats only because it was in the open (desktop, recent docs, etc).

Now if I ever do get really bored ya never know what I may do...but for the most part I fix the PC as quick as I can, and dont fiddle with anything else.

Adamant1988
May 21st, 2007, 01:04 PM
Do we have any people that repair computers or do technical support? If you have a computer in your possession that your fixing, do you ever take a less than professional look around the hard drive and try to get a feel for the personality or lifestyle of the person that owns the computer. Like looking in the photo folders, seeing whats on their play list, or looking through browser history?

Tell the truth.

I repair friend/family's computers all the time, and only in one instance did I do any 'snooping'. Basically this dipwad had downloaded several infected files which were strewn about his My Documents folder, and I ended up having to locate them and remove them because his cheap-*** virus scanner couldn't do it. It just so happened that one of these files was a Limewire'd attempt at downloading porn in his carefully hidden porn folder... but oh well, I did exactly what he asked me to do.

slimdog360
May 21st, 2007, 01:08 PM
Id be looking through every folder on that person computer. If there was a password, Id crack it. Thats how nosey I am.

brim4brim
May 21st, 2007, 01:12 PM
no, usually too busy to bother looking and I couldn't care less.

JerseyShoreComputer
May 21st, 2007, 01:26 PM
When we work on other people's computers, we let them know that in the course of our repair we may come across personal files, pictures, or other items. We ask them if there is anything on there we need to be concerned with (nude pictures, ect...) and if so have them sign a release. Just to be safe. Personally, unless we trace the problem to a "My Documents" or "My Pictures" type of directory, we stay away from all that personal stuff, although we never open the files unless we have to. But we don't read through them or anything, it really is an invasion of privacy. In the 22 years we have been doing this, so far nothing real shocking.

Oddly enough, I've found the most virus problems or "my computer crashed" problems from unauthorized downloading of MP3,s from sites like Kazaa, Limewire, and all those. Also, people going to those "warez" sites and downloading programs usually get bit by the nonstop porn-popup bug.

Enverex
May 21st, 2007, 01:30 PM
Heh, no, I've seen enough from my family's machines to not care what anyone has anymore. It's kinda like getting naked infront of a doctor (and the PC techs are the doctors and your PC is the persons body) there's not likely to be anythere there that they/we haven't seen many times before.

awakatanka
May 21st, 2007, 01:32 PM
Do we have any people that repair computers or do technical support? If you have a computer in your possession that your fixing, do you ever take a less than professional look around the hard drive and try to get a feel for the personality or lifestyle of the person that owns the computer. Like looking in the photo folders, seeing whats on their play list, or looking through browser history?

Tell the truth.human habit, sure i do.:popcorn:

blueturtl
May 21st, 2007, 01:41 PM
I don't snoop. If I can help not going through their files I will not. Sometimes it's not possible though (the files are all over the desktop or directories). When I do see someone else's files it's usually because I come across them rather than having looked for them.

If you are asking as someone who might feel violated - please take my word for it; I'm often a lot more sorry for my findings than the person who has something to hide.

Lucifiel
May 21st, 2007, 02:05 PM
I don't snoop. If I can help not going through their files I will not. Sometimes it's not possible though (the files are all over the desktop or directories). When I do see someone else's files it's usually because I come across them rather than having looked for them.

If you are asking as someone who might feel violated - please take my word for it; I'm often a lot more sorry for my findings than the person who has something to hide.

ROFL... I think I know what you mean.

Once, I'd to help a friend with some Windows problem. Wow... I really stumbled upon a lot of interesting stuff. :p There seemed to be tons of porn and whatnot, all carefully labelled and profiled, like some professor's collection of oddities and treasures.

shavenlunatic
May 21st, 2007, 02:16 PM
I don't bother... ever..

but TBH, if I did snoop, and I didn't find any pr0n or naked pics of their missus, I would be worried! Pr0n is the norm on most peoples pc's

Onyros
May 21st, 2007, 02:31 PM
I've done my share of repairs and reinstallations and whatnot.

Now, picture this: you're cleaning someone's hard drive and while you're doing it you find a whole lotta kiddie porn... What would you do? ;)

Biochem
May 21st, 2007, 03:00 PM
I've done my share of repairs and reinstallations and whatnot.

Now, picture this: you're cleaning someone's hard drive and while you're doing it you find a whole lotta kiddie porn... What would you do? ;)

I don't snoop on other peoples computer as it is an invasion of privacy.

Now if I was to accidentally find the previously mentioned files. Apart from the serious and legitimate jail time I'd be facing for not reporting it, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't report it. And unless it can be proven that the computer is a zombie the owner wouldn't be my friend anymore.

lhuser
May 21st, 2007, 03:05 PM
Personally, I am a techie. I'm not the best techie in the world, but the knowledge's good. I fix my stuff an all that, and I can garantee that I will never look in the user's privacy, unless I need the files for back up. I won't look in others stuff. It's not my business. My goal is to fix within the privacy of the owner. The on;y time I'd look in the pics is either if the owner wants me to look at them to ensure they're all good or if they feel like showing some to me.

maki_03
May 21st, 2007, 03:14 PM
haha! now i'm feeling guilty... i'll try to behave next time i open another person's pc. :D

tcpip4lyfe
May 21st, 2007, 03:19 PM
Back when I was the Network admin of a small company the owners computer was so infected with virii and spyware that it took about 10 minutes to boot. After browsing his history and cookies I quickly realized that he was addicted to porn. I had to tell the owner that he got most of his bugs from surfing "adult related sites" and politely asked him to stop doing it on company time. One of the most awkward phone calls I ever had to make.

Iceni
May 21st, 2007, 03:23 PM
Never on purpose. When computer owner has "massive cumshot.mpg" on the desktop it's kind of hard to avoid tho:)

Spr0k3t
May 21st, 2007, 03:30 PM
I offer an extremely thorough scanning service which puts most computer systems performing better than their OEM installs... even after years of use. Part of that service is to locate, classify unknown files, and purge redundancy. At the end of my fight with the computer systems in question, the customer receives a CD with all of their personal data, a DVD containing a package of installs for drivers and applications (some times there are two DVDs), and a print out of the files purged and what they mean/do. It's a service that people have asked for... and due to the extensive research involved, it really isn't cheap either. Anyway, that service I provide requires me to access personal data, and I give an up front "keep your nose clean" legal document which the customer must sign before any work is done. Any of the other services I do, I don't look at the personal data. You would be surprised though... how many people want their files cleaned up and all.

At one point, I did find some kiddie pr0n and I turned the guy in. From what I understand, they confiscated his equipment for 7 months, finally gave it all back with every bit of media destroyed (except the install discs).

samjh
May 21st, 2007, 03:33 PM
It's not my day job, but if requested to fix a computer, I do not snoop.

Do unto others as you will have them do unto you. I don't like people snooping my personal effects. I won't do it with other people's. It's as simple as that.

smoker
May 21st, 2007, 04:01 PM
sometimes will have a quick look, if a particular file name/title catches the eye, generally no, though, too busy, but if any child porn was discovered, no doubts, the police would be called in.

we've sometimes had women come in with a pc demanding to know if their boyfriend/husband has been looking at porn! what can you do?:-)

Somenoob
May 21st, 2007, 04:12 PM
No but it's over priced(in most places)

blastus
May 21st, 2007, 04:54 PM
My aunt is going to be buying a used computer and she wants me to transfer all her stuff to the new computer. I'm going to have both computers for a few days just to make sure the new one is *running properly.* This will be the perfect opportunity for me to go through her stuff. I might put a trojan or something on the newer computer as it already has tons of stuff on it because others have used it so no-one would know. Auntie doesn't know anything about firewalls, anti-virus, spyware etc... but she's gonna find out. I don't like my auntie. :)

BarfBag
May 21st, 2007, 05:05 PM
I don't snoop around. Makes me feel uncomfortable. Even if I'm alone. However, I did find something once. I really wish I hadn't. ugh

dca
May 21st, 2007, 05:40 PM
All the computers I work on are corporate workstations so I better not find anything... Wouldn't that be great if I did, though? Asides from the usual malware (virus, trojans, warez, etc) nothing really that impressive. Of course, nobody admints where they go here on the web. You know, a pop-up saying this registry cleaner is the cat's *** and they d/l & install it and blammo!...

Personally, on a side note. When it comes to the enterprise, keeping MS workstations up and running is an exercise in futility with all the crap out there. If you're not computer savy, it would be a safe bet to keep your install CD(s) handy or your re-install partition in check because I average around 6mos to 8mos for a workstation to be re-imaged. It's much easier to burn your porn to optical media and reinstall the OS than it is to give your hard-earned money to the Geek-Squad or whatever is at Circuit City to have them attempt a clean-up which ends up resulting in the same thing. Oh, offering up Linux to these people is out of the question.

deepwave
May 21st, 2007, 06:00 PM
Nope. I don't have the time. My usual modus operendi, is to recover and burn the client's data on a DVD, and then nuking^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hformatting and clean install of Windows XP. Occasionally, I slip in a free Ubuntu CD/DVD for subversive purposes. ;-)