Privacy Violations. Are They Law Violations?

[Michale32086]

Hi,

I reside in Florida, USA.

Until recently, I was the lead computer technician for a small local computer shop in northeast Florida.

I say "until recently" because I quit after the following incident came to light.

The owner of the shop had taken a ladies computer in to do a whack of the HD and a re-install. A couple days later, the owner bragged to me that he had found some adult pictures of the customer on her computer. He described them as full nude and topless pictures. Worse, the owner shared those pictures with ANOTHER customer who was present when the owner was bragging to me about it.

Of course, this is a violation of the customer's privacy, a violation of the public trust and grossly unprofessional.

My question is, though, is it illegal? I have contact with the customer and want to advise her if she can file a criminal complaint.

Thanx


Michale

[Skyymiles]

Originally Posted by Michale32086

Hi,

I reside in Florida, USA.

Until recently, I was the lead computer technician for a small local computer shop in northeast Florida.

I say "until recently" because I quit after the following incident came to light.

The owner of the shop had taken a ladies computer in to do a whack of the HD and a re-install. A couple days later, the owner bragged to me that he had found some adult pictures of the customer on her computer. He described them as full nude and topless pictures. Worse, the owner shared those pictures with ANOTHER customer who was present when the owner was bragging to me about it.

Of course, this is a violation of the customer's privacy, a violation of the public trust and grossly unprofessional.

My question is, though, is it illegal? I have contact with the customer and want to advise her if she can file a criminal complaint.

Thanx


Michale

what damages did you suffer?

if you are not the victim of privacy violation it is not illegal, sexual harassment maybe

[Michale32086]

So, does the person who IS a victim of privacy violations have a legal basis to file a criminal complaint.

THAT is the question.

[Skyymiles]

Originally Posted by Michale32086

So, does the person who IS a victim of privacy violations have a legal basis to file a criminal complaint.

THAT is the question.

that would depend on what kind and how much evidence you(they) could subponea to court.

[justalayman]

I am not a computer geek so what actually has to be done is a mystery to me but if viewing files to determine what is on the computer would be part of the process the computer was brought in for, the files would not be considered private simply due to the process undertaken.

as to showing them to another person; nothing illegal I can think of. Like you said; lack of professionalism and quite tacky but not illegal from what I understand.

even if viewing the files were not required, the fact they were on the computer and simply accessible to whomever had access to the computer legally (which the boss did), again, the files are not "private" per se.

[Michale32086]

Originally Posted by justalayman

I am not a computer geek so what actually has to be done is a mystery to me but if viewing files to determine what is on the computer would be part of the process the computer was brought in for, the files would not be considered private simply due to the process undertaken.

Good point. But I can assure you that there is absolutely no technical reason for anyone to view a customer's pictures or documents in order to
service their computer.

as to showing them to another person; nothing illegal I can think of. Like you said; lack of professionalism and quite tacky but not illegal from what I understand.

even if viewing the files were not required, the fact they were on the computer and simply accessible to whomever had access to the computer legally (which the boss did), again, the files are not "private" per se.

That's kinda what I thought.

Thanx for the input.


Michale

[Skyymiles]

Originally Posted by Michale32086

Good point. But I can assure you that there is absolutely no technical reason for anyone to view a customer's pictures or documents in order to
service their computer.

Michale

that's not entirely accurate... definitely depends on what the issue is involving the customer's presumption that the computer has malfunctioned...lol

[Michale32086]

Originally Posted by Skyymiles

that's not entirely accurate... definitely depends on what the issue is involving the customer's presumption that the computer has malfunctioned...lol

Not really.. Speaking generally, while there would be, in extreme cases, some diagnostics that might be performed on specific files, the actual viewing of pictures or reading of .doc or .docx files is not required.

Specifically in this case, however, the customer had requested that her Hard Drive be "whacked" (it's an industry term. ) and a new OS installed. The drive should have been immediately formatted and not even have been booted up into the OS Desktop, in this case, Windows XP, much less scavenged thru for "nudie" pics.

Michale

[quincy]

There have been a few court cases that have addressed this very issue.

The question has been asked as to whether a search of a computer violates the computer owner's reasonable expectation of privacy and/or if it violates the rights of the computer owner under the Fourth Amendment.

Generally, law enforcement cannot access and view information stored on a computer without a warrant. In United States v Bath, the Court found that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in files stored on a hard drive of a computer. And in United States v Blas, the Court said: "An individual has the same expectation of privacy in a pager, computer, or other electronic data storage and retrieval device as in a closed container."

However, individuals can lose the Fourth Amendment protections and their right to privacy when they relinquish their computer to a computer repairman, in effect giving the repairman a key to the "closed container." Granting a third party the right to access a computer also can allow for a warrantless search of the computer by law enforcement.

In United States v Hall, the Court said it did not violate a computer owner's rights when a computer, in for repair, was discovered to have child pornography stored on it. The repairman in this case noticed that a file name indicated child pornography, he accessed it, he called the police, the police viewed the files the repairman had accessed, the police seized the computer and the police arrested the computer owner.

Police officers are generally not allowed to exceed any search already done by the third party who was granted access to the computer without a warrant. In other words, the police were only allowed to view the child pornography files already opened and viewed by the computer repairman until they obtained a warrant to view the unopened files.

This is not unlike a film developer who, when making prints, discovers shots of naked children. The film developer has the legal right (and often the legal obligation) to turn the photos over to the police.

Therefore, and to support what justalayman has already said, because the woman willingly turned over her computer to the owner of the computer shop where you worked, she granted the owner access to her computer and, in essense, lost some of her rights to privacy and protection. If she did not specifically state to the owner that she was placing limits on what could be accessed by the technician, making it clear at the start that there were restrictions on what access she was granting, then she should have had no expectation of privacy.

Any computer technician who violates a customer's trust by showing the customer's private information to others, however, could (and perhaps should) be fired. This is what happened to computer technicians at a computer store in Wisconsin and one, I believe, in Minnesota (same circumstances as described here).

If the computer technician prints off any private information or publishes any of the private information he runs across, THEN he would be violating privacy laws (and potentially other laws, as well). He has no right to reproduce, distribute or publish what he locates on another's computer. Legal problems arise not so much in the accessing of the information by someone who has been granted access, but rather in what is done with the accessed information once it has been accessed.