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.

  • @[email protected]
    2•1 year ago

    You almost always need to the password to test a phone thoroughly. You can see that the screen works on the lock screen, but what about the front facing camera, and secondary microphone that are attached to the screen and need to be transferred, or replaced if you do it like Apple. On newer iPhones the slightest defect can cause face id to not work. On laptops it depends. Sometimes live USBs don’t have the right drivers to test all the hardware. When you assume things are simple you’re usually wrong.

    • Traister101
      3•1 year ago

      Weird that you’d mention the cameras, one of the only things you can access from the lock screen.

      For everything but data recovery you can get by fine without a password. You aren’t gonna have a hardware issue that makes Facebook slightly slower, your device won’t turn on.

      • @[email protected]
        1•1 year ago

        Incorrect. On most devices after the power is cycled you can’t use the camera on the lockscreen. You have to enter the password once before that feature is enabled. And if you’re doing a screen replacement you need to power it off or you risk frying the backlight. How many cellphones have you repaired? 1? Hundreds? Thousands? It was my job for years, and my point is just don’t assume things are simple.