Found a porn stash while repairing laptop - now what?

[shamrin]

You hurt all of us by even asking such a question.

The last thing people want is their computer tech rummaging through their files for credit card numbers, bank accounts, porn or who-knows-what. OK fair enough, in some very special cases you might accidentally see something but if there is any question in your mind that you should handle it with the utmost discretion then, really, find a different line of work.

 

[gunslinger]

I don't go rummaging through my customer's files. That's the fastest way to lose customers and piss people off. How would you know that it's porn unless you OPENED their files???? Even if there was porn on there it's not your job to play "police officer". Sometimes viruses put pics on a PC.

Yeah and some viruses download music illegally. Try using that in court as a defense to Kiddy porn or music downloading.

 

[colonydata]

I would never know because I never open people's files. If I see a folder called "Kiddie P0rn" then that means nothing too. It could be anything and I am mindful that viruses plant stuff like this. My job is to repair computers, not snoop around like a police office conducting a search.

i have some hand outs from a Child Pornography for IT Pros workshop done by the FBI that i went to in college.

i will see if i can find and upload them tomorrow, but i am thinking that a folder labeled kiddie porn meets the threshold where you a required by law to report it.

 

[Xander]

i have some hand outs from a Child Pornography for IT Pros workshop done by the FBI that i went to in college.

i will see if i can find and upload them tomorrow, but i am thinking that a folder labeled kiddie porn meets the threshold where you a required by law to report it.

I don't need to know what the laws are in your country. If I see a folder called "kiddie porn", a phone call gets made. I will gladly risk erring on the side of caution.

 

[16k_zx81]

Interesting to see the diversity of responses to this question.

I can see both sides of the argument -

--- the customer mentioned kids using the machine, and that raises the question mark of whether we should be telling her as a matter of duty of care (I know, we don't have one, but it seems reasonable enough to have the concern)

--- and the thing about respect, discretion and privacy - completely valid, too, but are we doing the customer any favours if she doesnt know the kids are doing this?

I guess if the files were out in the open, then we assume there's nothing to be said. In which case the respect and discretion argument seems the correct approach.

We don't know the age of the 'teenagers' which makes the duty-of-care argument tricky. If they are, like 18, 19, none of our business.

But we don't know this

If the files are hidden, say, in a login with a bunch of teen paraphenalia all over the place; is the correct approach, then, to notify? or do we stay schtum? (im not talking about kiddie porn - just adult material in a login that looks like its owned by a youngster)

 

[MikeLierman]

On all of my invoices I specify "accessing pornographic material" as a warranty voider. All too many times it just leads to bigger problems with the computer. I'll be happy to continue my work, but sometimes it's just a thing that needs to be discussed with the client.

Btw, I also know of a couple of Trojan downloaders (I even have samples of this Trojan). Playing with it in a virtual machine, it downloads about 1gb of porn per hour. It just scouts the web and downloads it. You wouldn't even realize it's there, unless you went into Process Explorer (task manager gets disabled) and you see the excess high CPU usage.

Droid DOES Walkin' the walk while tappin' the talk.

 

[TimJacobs]

On all of my invoices I specify "accessing pornographic material" as a warranty voider. All too many times it just leads to bigger problems with the computer. I'll be happy to continue my work, but sometimes it's just a thing that needs to be discussed with the client.

Btw, I also know of a couple of Trojan downloaders (I even have samples of this Trojan). Playing with it in a virtual machine, it downloads about 1gb of porn per hour. It just scouts the web and downloads it. You wouldn't even realize it's there, unless you went into Process Explorer (task manager gets disabled) and you see the excess high CPU usage.

Droid DOES Walkin' the walk while tappin' the talk.

Can I get a copy of that please? I would like to play with it.

 

[Corbin]

Ya I will have to agree, when I do a back up, I can care less what the name of the files and folder say, I't is in my trust from my clients not to look and tell. Now if a Wife or a relative came in and said so and so has a problem with porn, but we cant prove it can you look and find stuff. Then I will snoop for files or sites, but other then that I don't care its not my job to luck, but rather to clean, backup and repair.

When I worked in a print shop we would get the occasional customer(s) who wanted certain things printed or copied, and the policy was if the person making the copies (us) felt off about doing a certain item to tell the customer to either wait for someone else or tell the customer we couldn't do it. Now actually being handed stuff like that and seeing it first glance was hard for me not to laugh out loud and keep a straight face while doing some copies/prints or telling the client no was above me, I have a horrible poker face I always found it funny.

This is a on the fence deal, I would be careful how it is handled if you choose to tell the customer, best route should be "I saw when I was cleaning the history out you did have some adult sites, and to watch out since you can attract fill in your choice of words so just for future references keep you AV/IS updated"

 

[xxsilk109xx]

Yea just add it to your own collection! lol

 

[Knightsman]

The ONLY time you tell a customer about this is if you KNOW its their kids machine. THAT'S IT. And I mean under 13. Anything else is non of your business.

You don't snoop into their financial records to see if they are buying drugs do you? Its just easier to see the pictures than their financial records. But the thought does exist, if he saw this, did he see that.

Heck as far as you know, that might be part of her job, she might run a local bar, or magazine.

Your just asking for problems otherwise.