FBI Has Been Paying Geek Squad To Spy On Customers For Over A Decade by SIGNYM

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FBI Has Been Paying Geek Squad To Spy On Customers For Over A Decade

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, March 8, 2018 19:27
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Thursday, March 8, 2018 11:18 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
For over a decade, the FBI had been paying employees of Best Buy's Geek Squad to pass on information about illegal materials on customer devices sent in for repair, according to records obtained through the Freedom of Information lawsuit filed last year.

At no point did the FBI get warrants based on probable cause before Geek Squad informants conducted these searches. Nor are these cases the result of Best Buy employees happening across potential illegal content on a device and alerting authorities. -EFF.org

Records posted Tuesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation reveal that federal agents from the FBI's Louisville division had been paying Geek Squad informants for information that might kick off investigations related to their "Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime" program, according to the documents.

The documents released to EFF show that Best Buy officials have enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the agency for at least 10 years. For example, an FBI memo from September 2008 details how Best Buy hosted a meeting of the agency’s “Cyber Working Group” at the company’s Kentucky repair facility.

The memo and a related email show that Geek Squad employees also gave FBI officials a tour of the facility before their meeting and makes clear that the law enforcement agency’s Louisville Division “has maintained close liaison with the Geek Squad’s management in an effort to glean case initiations and to support the division’s Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs.” -EFF

... After several years of coordinating efforts, the FBI developed a process for following up on Geek Squad leads. After an employee had identified material thought to be illegal, the FBI would show up, review the suspected content, seize the computer or hard drive, and send it to another FBI field office close to where the owner of the device lived. From that point, field agents would then investigate further, and in some cases, attempt to obtain a warrant to search the device (after the device had been searched).

Some of these reports indicate that the FBI treated Geek Squad employees as informants, identifying them as “CHS,” which is shorthand for confidential human sources. In other cases, the FBI identifies the initial calls as coming from Best Buy employees, raising questions as to whether certain employees had different relationships with the FBI.

In the case of the investigation into Rettenmaier’s computers, the documents released to EFF do not appear to have been made public in that prosecution. These raise additional questions about the level of cooperation between the company and law enforcement. -EFF

After CBS Security editor Zack Whittaker contacted Best Buy, they offered this lengthy reply:

"As we said more than a year ago, our Geek Squad repair employees discover what appears to be child pornography on customers' computers nearly 100 times a year. Our employees do not search for this material; they inadvertently discover it when attempting to confirm we have recovered lost customer data.

We have a moral and, in more than 20 states, a legal obligation to report these findings to law enforcement. We share this policy with our customers in writing before we begin any repair.

As a company, we have not sought or received training from law enforcement in how to search for child pornography. Our policies prohibit employees from doing anything other than what is necessary to solve the customer's problem. In the wake of these allegations, we have redoubled our efforts to train employees on what to do -- and not do -- in these circumstances.

We have learned that four employees may have received payment after turning over alleged child pornography to the FBI. Any decision to accept payment was in very poor judgement and inconsistent with our training and policies. Three of these employees are no longer with the company and the fourth has been reprimanded and reassigned."

There is original material with the article that can only be accessed thru Sribd via this link. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-08/fbi-has-been-paying-geek-squ
ad-spy-customers-over-decade

Now, I know that THUGR will say If you haven't done anything wrong you shouldn't have to worry but in fact we DO have a Constitution that protects us from Big Brother tactics ... something that THUGR seems to constantly forget, since he's a Big Brother advocate.

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 11:21 AM

THGRRI

I am referencing this thread, http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=62024, because SIG more times than not, sources her information that she posts here from zerohedge. She stupidly defends this as a reputable source. Something she does with other unreliable sources. As she continues to do so, I will reference this thread to remind all she posts from this and other corrupted sources. Sources designed to create havoc rather than inform.

Below are the names of those behind zero hedge. Don't miss what I've highlighted in red below. This folks is why comrade troll SIG loves to quote zero hedge.

In addition, Lokey said he faced constant pressure to frame stories in-line with a particular world-view, which he described as “Russia=good. Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry=dunce. Vladmir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft.”

All of this matches SIG's playbook here and Putin's globally; exactly. http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=62024

The men behind zero hedge

Colin Lokey, a 32-year-old former Seeking Alpha director

Daniel Ivandjiiski, a 37-year-old Bulgarian-born former hedge fund employee who was barred for insider trading in 2008

Tim Backshall, a 45-year-old credit derivatives strategist
Despite its populist tone, Lokey told Bloomberg he recently left Zero Hedge because he didn’t see eye-to-eye with the others when it came to editorial vision.

“Zero Hedge ceased to serve that public service years ago,” Lokey said. “They care what generates page views. Clicks. Money.”

In addition, Lokey said he faced constant pressure to frame stories in-line with a particular world-view, which he described as “Russia=good. Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry=dunce. Vladmir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft.”

Lokey claims Zero Hedge’s focus on traffic and revenue is hypocritical, but Ivandjiiski sees things differently.

Finally, Zero Hedge addressed the accusations of systematic bias in its content.

“We are certainly ok with being the object of other’s conspiracy theories, in this case completely false ones since we have never been in contact with anyone in Russia, or the US, or any government for that matter,” Zero Hedge says.

The site claims it has never accepted a dime of funding outside of advertising revenue and that Lokey was never pressured about how to frame his articles or editorialized.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zero-hedge-unmasked-theres-more-1427301
65.html

According to the Bloomberg article, three men have been churning out all of the content at Zero Hedge, using the joint pseudonym “Tyler Durden” from the Brad Pitt film “Fight Club.” The 1999 cult film, according to Rolling Stone, is “about being young, male and powerless against the pacifying drug of consumerism. It’s about solitude, despair and bottled-up rage.” That ethos is frequently on display at Zero Hedge.

The three “Tyler Durdens” outed by Bloomberg reporters are Colin Lokey, who has now left Zero Hedge in a fit of pique and is responsible for handing over the internal chat sessions from Zero Hedge on traffic-building strategies and other matters. Bloomberg says “the other two men are Daniel Ivandjiiski, 37, the Bulgarian-born former analyst long reputed to be behind the site, and Tim Backshall, 45, a well-known credit derivatives strategist.”

The article notes that “Ivandjiiski has a multimillion-dollar mansion in Mahwah, N.J., and Backshall lives in a plush San Francisco suburb,” suggesting these are “not exactly reflections” of the anti-capitalism reflected in the moniker “Tyler Durden.”

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 11:28 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

My response to this is, "duh, what did you think would happen if you gave your personal information to somebody else via laptop/computer".

I was paranoid back before it was en vogue. Now that it is, nobody even really seems to care all that much.

I live under the impression that nobody is without "sin". I'm not all that interesting and though it's likely that I have been watched at some point it's all pretty boring stuff. There are billions of other people to watch out there. I would think that watching me would be a waste of taxpayer dollars.

The only way you can ever get away from the surveillance these days is to go completely off grid and live in a shack somewhere in the middle of one of the Dakotas. You just have to balance how much comfort, convenience and social interactions you're willing to give up to that end.

As it turns out, I'm not willing to do all of that. I'd never give my computers to somebody else to fix or have Alexa in my house, but the only real reason I don't have a cell phone is because I feel it's a waste of money. If I worked a job that required it and paid for it you wouldn't hear me bitching.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 11:32 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:

I am referencing this thread, http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=62024, because SIG more times than not, sources her information that she posts here from zerohedge. She stupidly defends this as a reputable source. Something she does with other unreliable sources. As she continues to do so, I will reference this thread to remind all she posts from this and other corrupted sources. Sources designed to create havoc rather than inform.

Below are the names of those behind zero hedge. Don't miss what I've highlighted in red below. This folks is why comrade troll SIG loves to quote zero hedge.

Are you saying then that you don't believe that people were being spied on by Geek Squad?

I think there's a good case for it. It's not as if they had low level employees doing it knowingly. Hell, I'm sure the store managers and even district and regional managers and maybe even higher woudln't know about it. All it would take is backing up the user's hard drive to a cloud as an additional "protective service" to their customers and all that data is out there to be looked at.

Of course it would be silly to infer that Best Buy employees themselves were doing the spying. That never would have happened, and even if it did we would have heard about this years ago by now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 11:34 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Ok, then Troll THUGR, since you're either to lazy, too stupid, or too much of a security state troll to actually go the original article by the Electronic Frontier Foundation - which is LINKED in the ZH article, then here is the LINK to the original article itself.

Quote:
Geek Squad's Relationship with FBI Is Cozier Than We Thought

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/geek-squads-relationship-fbi-coz
ier-we-thought

*****

Yanno, you stupid sack of dishonest shit, it turns out that you're a WORSE source of info than Zerohedge. THEY at least LINK to their original sources, so that people can read the original articles or view the original vidoe.

YOU???

You can't be bothered.

You make up shit all the time, post allegations, and lie about everything under the sun, and gee, never manage to find and LINK to the original source.

Why is that? I wonder. Is it because you're a lying sack of shit?

Between you and Zerohedge, I'll choose Zerohedge.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 11:52 AM

THGRRI

The point is that I will not engage in a discussion when the source is zerohedge. It would take to long to compare what they post to the original stories to make sure they did not edit it. They do do that.

Now, I checked the so called documents linked in the article by the EFF. I don't see how they can be substantiated. Also, I have no problem with the Geek Squad having an agreement with the FBI to report anyone, who the Geek Squad finds to have child porn on their computers.

You have a particular attitude toward, or way of regarding things, that block you from realizing how aspects of what you are trying to convey, show you lack an understanding of the complexities of the topic. Some oversight is needed. Some oversight is good. Child porn doesn't deal in documents or private information. It is in the form of easy to spot photos and videos.

I saw nothing in the story to suggest that anything else was being done.

T

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 1:05 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
The point is that I will not engage in a discussion when the source is zerohedge- THUGR

The point is that you will not engage in discussion, period.

When you're not posting totally baseless opinions and beliefs, you're attacking other posters with totally baseless accusations and assumptions. Son, the evidence indicates that you don't know HOW to discuss! The fact is that you'll use any excuse in the book to avoid discussing things that you disagree with, and your most common dodge is "attacking the source" with "ad hominem" accusations.

So, yanno, stuff it.
Your excuses don't wash.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 1:16 PM

THGRRI

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
The point is that I will not engage in a discussion when the source is zerohedge- THUGR
The point is that you will not engage in discussion, period.

When you're not posting totally baseless opinions and beliefs, you're attacking other posters with totally baseless accusations and assumptions. Son, the evidence indicates that you don't know HOW to discuss! The fact is that you'll use any excuse in the book to avoid discussing things that you disagree with, and your most common dodge is "attacking the source" with "ad hominem" accusations.

Nope, the point is that you lie and troll on behalf of Russia. That you have been caught lying so many times the honest posters no longer take you seriously. Instead they constantly correct you and call you on it.

You demanding people reply to you as though bullshit and lies deserves an honest discussion is laughable.

T

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 1:44 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Nope, the point is that you lie and troll on behalf of Russia.- THUGR

And yet ANOTHER baseless accusation!

LINKS, PLEASE.

****

Also, do you suppose you could actually DISCUSS THE TOPIC? Since you were too lazy or too stupid to follow the link in Zerohedge, I kindly posted the link for you. So, what is your excuse THIS time?? You don't like EFF either?? Because I couldn't help but notice that once your first excuse was taken away, you decide to attack me (again) instead of addressing the issue.

****

You see? Just like I said: You simply don't know how to discuss ANYthing. So, are you going remain a worthless piece of troll-shit, or join the human world?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 1:59 PM

THGRRI

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Nope, the point is that you lie and troll on behalf of Russia.- THUGR
And yet ANOTHER baseless accusation!

LINKS, PLEASE.

The links that prove you troll on behalf of Putin exist everywhere in the real world threads. Pick one, any one.

It's no different than all the reported information regarding Trumps wrong doings. Some here deal in facts. Because of this they realize Trump is in deep shit. Then there are the trolls who defend and deflect for him, that's you.

You being a Russian troll is not unsubstantiated. Trump being in deep shit due to his own actions in also not unsubstantiated.

T

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 2:10 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
The links that prove you troll on behalf of Putin exist everywhere in the real world- THUGR

If they're so easy to find, LIST SOME and QUOTE ME. And then discuss the issues to see if I'm "trolling" or if I actually have facts and reality behind my posts. But please, start another thread instead of shitting up this one.

What I see THUGR is that you simply can't stand behind your own words. Just like the troll and liar that you are, you're a coward and a bully: a real human shitstain.

****

And now, do you suppose you could actually DISCUSS THE TOPIC? Or are you so devoid of ideas that you intend to simply turn this thread into a flame war? Sorry, but I'm not going to oblige.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Thursday, March 8, 2018 7:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

If the only thing we're talking about is child porn, then the FBI is in the business here of locking up the stupidest people in the country and removing them from the gene pool.

"For the children" is how everything bad is justified, T. Haven't you figured that out by now?

What is their process of doing things? How would the FBI get their information?

If they're simply backing up old hard drive data to the cloud while working on the devices to have a backup when the work is done, there is a lot more than child porn being sifted through.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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