computer repair nightmare stories? A privacy thing.?
Question by sunny side up: computer repair nightmare stories? A privacy thing.?
I have 2 computers that no longer work. I am thinking of having them repaired through a big-name place like Circuit City or Best Buy but I am a little concerned about just handing over my computers that obviously contain all my info/photos/credit card info stored as cookies, etc. Has anyone had any bad experiences with people violating their privacy or stealing your info when you had your computer repaired? I know I sound paranoid but it only takes one idiot to steal my info and cause a lot of problems. If you have had a great experience having a computer reapired, where did you go? Thanks. ***i cannot clean out my cookies b/c neither computer will even turn on***
Best answer:
Answer by MrStockington
There was an incident not too long ago where Best Buy lost a person’s computer with all the private data on it and didn’t tell them that they lost it till 4 months later…who knows who has a copy of the data now.
There is no way to be sure that your private data will not be stolen, the corporation will not inform u even if it is stolen, and there is not much u can do to prove that they were the ones that stole it.
Edit:
Whenever u ship a Dell back for repairs they will make u remove the hard drive and keep it with you to prevent any private data from being stolen. FYI
Add your own answer in the comments!
Related posts:
- In what ways can your credit card details get stolen from Amazon?
- is my computer secure now?
- Slow Computer? Top 10 Steps to Speed Up Your Computer (Part 2 of 2)
- Is remote working going to be the next big thing?
- Q&A: I really need expert advice w/ this huge problem: Is my computer “kidnapped” or hacked?
You can find great tips for this at:
http://MyDailySecurity.com
I would go to best buy. Anywhere you take it you are taking a risk of this.They have people watching but you just never know. I don’t let anyone touch my sysytems. I check aounrd look for a good computer repair shop. I know best buy is pretty good and they come to your house so you can watch them. Call best buy and ask for the geek squad and have them come to you so you can watch what they are doing
You should take your computer to Circuit City. As much as I hate to say it the staff there is generally a little better then Best Buy.
Circuit City will have much faster turn around times, but you’re going to pay pretty much the same price. The thing is though that Circuit City I know has what they call “white glove training.” It’s a lot of BS I came across but part of it is making sure that customer information is never viewed, etc. So they tend to take good care of customer information.
I’ve had bad experiences with Best Buy. Dropped off a computer to them recently (under their warranty) and told the guy that I had RAID on the HDDs and he asked me what RAID was and how the second drive got in there. I would’ve taken it away from him if the motherboard wasn’t shot.
Circuit City doesn’t have as many shining stars either, but they at least a decent part of the time can give me solid answers closer to what is actually true.
Cookies don’t contain creditcard info… Although if you have explorer save your passwords for you, they could get the passwords to any sites you visit.
I doubt that any repair person is going to bother, especially since if your credit cards were to be used, they would be suspects… plus, if you had your credit card to them for payment, they can get that info then.
There was an incident I read about a few days ago about some repair shop setting up several ladies web cams to turn on and broadcast pictures to them, but I’m sure that is the exception, not the rule
In a big place like circuit city etc. you have the young, inexperienced people who would be the most likely to do something like that, but at the same time they are also not alone and would likely not risk it.
At a smaller repair shop, you’ll probably find much more mature and responsilble people, who I’d trust a lot more, but would also be alone with the computer. On the same note, however, and independent shop isn’t going to risk their reputation and business to do something stupid with your information, where some hourly monkey at best buy might.
Your best bet is to find a small local repair shop. One in which you know the owner or have a direct recommendation. Is there a company your office uses? Ask them.
I agree, the big box stores have lots of low paid (probably very competent in “most” instances) employees with not a lot of personal stake in your pc.
A small business owner will care more, try that.