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.
This is why I won’t repair any device I can’t fix myself (which unfortunately is most of them, I’m not very tech literate).
if you are technical enough to replace a hard drive then when you buy a computer also buy an extra drive. day1 build your machine or recover to the new drive. keep original drive in case of repair need. it also helps to troubleshoot if your problem is hardware or software.
Lol, I barely understand the words you just said.
He’s saying that if you can change a hard drive, then you can always just keep a spare one (with a clean OS install) on hand to use whenever you take it in for repairs.
Changing a hard drive is basically knowing where the hard drive is, how to access it, and then unplugging and replugging some cables. Fairly easy, and most newer cases have been designed to make it easy to reach the storage bays.
Not sure why you think explaining the same thing in basically the same way would change anything. I am not tech literate, I wouldn’t even know how to open the computer to access these locations. Stop trying to teach me, you’re wasting your time.
Sorry, that’s my bad. When I see something that looks like a request for information, I try my best to answer it. Even if you personally don’t find it useful, someone else in a similar position but different perspective on learning might be interested. Sorry, hope you have a good day!
I never requested information, I simply made a couple statements about my lack of tech literacy. If I wanted to learn, I would have done so years ago.
This is why commenting on lemmy sucks.
Removed by mod
Aaaand more of the same. You are irrelevant to me, as are your opinions.