When you need to drop off your tech devices for a repair, how confident are you that they won’t be snooped on?
CBC’s Marketplace took smartphones and laptops to repair stores across Ontario — including large chains Best Buy and Mobile Klinik — and found that in more than half of the documented cases, technicians accessed intimate photos and private information not relevant to the repair.
Marketplace dropped off devices at 20 stores, ranging from small independent shops to medium-sized chains to larger national chains, after installing monitoring software on the devices. In total, 16 stores were recorded. (At four stores, the tracking software didn’t log anything, or the stores didn’t appear to turn the devices on.)
Technicians at nine stores accessed private data, including one technician who not only viewed photos but copied them onto a USB key.
Like when I accidentally broke the glass on my camera bump and I was able to buy the replacement and fix it myself for under $20, right?
That has to do with the manufacturer, not that it’s android.
Same-same, but different, but still same
I have repaired phone screens on both Android and iPhones, but honestly both suck at this point. One of the first android phones I repaired was a droid 2 and that was fucking painful, then it broke again in a few months 🙃