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Is anybody not worried about snoopers when taking their computer in for repair?

B

bobright

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 29, 2010
4,817
34
I am coming over from a PC where most problems that arise you can easily get to and replace yourself. I want an iMac really bad but I hate the thought that if it messes up Apple can snoop through personal family photos, video, documents etc

Im a very private person but I guess there is no choice and that's what you sign up for
 
Mine's going in on Friday for repair, chances are I'll format it before I hand it over. For me that's good enough, although I'm sure Apple employees have better things to do than look at my holiday snaps.
 
bobright said:
I am coming over from a PC where most problems that arise you can easily get to and replace yourself. I want an iMac really bad but I hate the thought that if it messes up Apple can snoop through personal family photos, video, documents etc
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Your data is far more interesting to you than to anyone else. Apple reps have neither the time nor the interest to snoop through your stuff. They service countless Macs and are only interested in fixing your problem and moving on to the next customer.
 
If you keep your personal stuff on an external hard drive, you'll never have to worry about it.
 
The idea of Apple employees snooping on personal files would probably violate a moral and ethics clause in their employment contract. Will this stop them? No, not if they are dead set on taking a peep at your personal life. But then again, you would have to question the hiring methods used if people like that slip through the pre-employment checks.

If you are worried then I would suggest moving your files to an external device for storage until your Apple product is returned to you.
 
GGJstudios said:
Your data is far more interesting to you than to anyone else. Apple reps have neither the time nor the interest to snoop through your stuff. They service countless Macs and are only interested in fixing your problem and moving on to the next customer.
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People have been busted for child porn after taking their computers in for repair. That clearly shows that someone is looking...and I doubt the pervert labeled his folders "child porn."
 
fa8362 said:
People have been busted for child porn after taking their computers in for repair. That clearly shows that someone is looking.
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Please post a link to such information. There's more to the story.
 
While I understand your concern, you aren't as interesting as you may think you are:)

In any event, I would clone your machine over to an external, boot from the clone, wipe the main machine drive, send it in, get it back, clone the clone to your machine drive and be back where you were
 
I'm not worried about it, but then again I don't have my stuff on my internal hard drive. ;) (I'm traditional, not into that crazy or inhumane stuff). Someone else suggested cloning it, formating it, and restoring it. Sounds like that would work fine IMO.
 
fa8362 said:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=child+porn+computer+repair&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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Nothing you've posted indicates that an Apple repair tech will snoop through a user's files.
At least nine states--Arkansas, California, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, and South Dakota--have enacted laws requiring computer technicians or information technology workers to report child pornography if they encounter it in the scope of their work. The laws don't require technicians or service providers to search for the illegal material, only to report it if they find it.
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GGJstudios said:
Your data is far more interesting to you than to anyone else. Apple reps have neither the time nor the interest to snoop through your stuff. They service countless Macs and are only interested in fixing your problem and moving on to the next customer.
Click to expand...

Agreed - they run pretty lean on staff. I brought my iMac into the genius bar and he wanted to resolve my issues as quickly as possible and move on to the next ticket in the queue.

Apple service is not like a corporate IT department where corporate IT views the data on a company machine as belonging to the company. Corporate IT departments have a right (and responsibility) to ensure no illegal activity is happening.
 
BillyBobBongo said:
Mine's going in on Friday for repair, chances are I'll format it before I hand it over. For me that's good enough, although I'm sure Apple employees have better things to do than look at my holiday snaps.
Click to expand...

diagnostics247 said:
The idea of Apple employees snooping on personal files would probably violate a moral and ethics clause in their employment contract. Will this stop them? No, not if they are dead set on taking a peep at your personal life. But then again, you would have to question the hiring methods used if people like that slip through the pre-employment checks.

If you are worried then I would suggest moving your files to an external device for storage until your Apple product is returned to you.
Click to expand...

dukebound85 said:
While I understand your concern, you aren't as interesting as you may think you are:)

In any event, I would clone your machine over to an external, boot from the clone, wipe the main machine drive, send it in, get it back, clone the clone to your machine drive and be back where you were
Click to expand...

Hairlesswookiee said:
I'm not worried about it, but then again I don't have my stuff on my internal hard drive. ;) (I'm traditional, not into that crazy or inhumane stuff). Someone else suggested cloning it, formating it, and restoring it. Sounds like that would work fine IMO.
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Guys, the thing is if something fails on the Mac are you still able to clone to a external? I thought the fact that if something were to mess up you wouldn't be able to boot it or do any of this stuff?

I mean if you can clone to an external and do a "restore" before getting it serviced then that's great didn't think you could do this.
 
bobright said:
Guys, the thing is if something fails on the Mac are you still able to clone to a external? I thought the fact that if something were to mess up you wouldn't be able to boot it or do any of this stuff?

I mean if you can clone to an external and do a "restore" before getting it serviced then that's great didn't think you could do this.
Click to expand...
Of course you can clone to an external drive. You can clone, then reformat the drive, then after it's been serviced, restore from the clone backup.
 
GGJstudios said:
Of course you can clone to an external drive. You can clone, then reformat the drive, then after it's been serviced, restore from the clone backup.
Click to expand...

So help me understand this here if something fails that it wouldnt boot up normally, you'd still be able to access this part of the machine that clones and backs up e.g something like windows safe mode? How about if it is the hard drive that fails?

That's probably a dumb question but if the hard drive fails then you better just hope you backed up via time machine because you can't retrieve anything from a hard drive that died right? In this case the Apple tech would just toss and destroy my hard drive?


Thanks GG
 
Would creating a separate "repair" account (while the computer was healthy) slow them down at all? I assume it would have to have admin rights, but can they then snoop into other accounts on the machine without leaving tracks?
 
ive read some pretty nasty stuff about bestbuy going through users stuff when computers are brought in. there was a big story on it along time ago.

There is no porn on my computer. Just as long as they dont delete anything i could care less what they see.

I dont think they go through peoples stuff. however i wouldnt be surprised if they saw some data that may have been on the desktop or something.
 
I always rename the 700GB folder full of fetish videos on my desktop something incognito like "Boring Tax Documents." They never look in it. In fact, they're usually so surprised I would keep such boring stuff on my Mac that I get strange looks from the entire repair staff when I go to pick it up afterward.
 
Not sure about this, but do you really think they have time to snoop? Do not get me wrong I am sure the odd tech does but if I was in that position as a tech I would think that it would get really boring after awhile. Besides I am at work to make money both for myself and the business I work for. Why take a chance of getting caught and possibly opening up a lawsuit against yourself or your company. And definitely getting fired, which is what I would do to that employee. I never have anything worth hiding on my computer and if I did, it would go on external drive for my eyes only.
 
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