The genius said I didnt need to reformat or erase my hard drive...I only worry about my dropbox stuff....nothing else..he needed the password login too...how worried should I be that the repair person will mess with my data in general? He said not to worry they reformat it anyways...
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Sent Mac for repair- will my data be breached?
- Thread starter uptempos
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I would operate under the assumption that any repair person is going to look at your photos/videos that are easily accessible. Especially if you happen to be female.
Install a key logger if you want to know what this particular person does?
I would also assume they wouldn't "mess" with your data if by that you mean deleting/rename/moving/copying. That is malicious and doesn't really serve a purpose.
You could also unlink your DropBox from your mac.
Install a key logger if you want to know what this particular person does?
I would also assume they wouldn't "mess" with your data if by that you mean deleting/rename/moving/copying. That is malicious and doesn't really serve a purpose.
You could also unlink your DropBox from your mac.
Yeah I changed my password on my dropbox...I know I shouldve been more careful...its mainly dropbox I am worried about..addresses and whatnot..the dropbox was already linked into the macbook and downloaded into the ssd...isn't already too late even if the password to dropbox was changed?
Encrypt your hard drive with Firevault 2, then create a guest user that he can use. He won't have access to anything else on the drive expect Safari.
I've only needed to send my laptop in once, maybe twice since owning Apple laptops (I started with PowerMacs), and when I did, I erased them just to be safe.
Unless you're a celebrity, very rich, or a politician, you're neither interesting nor important enough for anyone (not even Apple geniuses) to snoop through your stuff.
No offense.
In grad school, while working with a large scientific collaboration, I would regularly get emails from our software liaison regarding security. One night while working a shift at the experiment our shift leader asks who has screen sharing, file sharing, and printer sharing enabled, all things I turned on to work with the machines on my home network? It was then I realized how easy it was for people to see what ports a machine has open to begin looking for ways to access the machine, and that I should probably start taking security a little more seriously. When it comes to data, it's generally best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Once you give someone physical access to your machine, assume it is game over, and that your deepest darkest secrets or most sensitive data have been compromised. If they want it, they can most likely get it at that point. If you have sensitive data stored in cloud storage, be it Drop Box, iCloud, Google Drive, etc., assume it is accessible by someone, whether it's the data on the physical drive or data en route from one place to another.
Practice safe computing practices, use password protected screen savers and sleep modes and encrypt your drive. This will go a long way to keeping the honest people honest. If you need to grant physical access to the machine, remove any sensitive data, especially if they need admin access to the machine. Depending on the sensitivity of the data, it may be worth swapping the drive entirely.
As mentioned, if you are interesting enough for someone to dig through your sensitive data, then you probably know it, and should do your best to lock things down. If you are not, assume that the tech may snoop around anyway just for kicks and giggles.
Practice safe computing practices, use password protected screen savers and sleep modes and encrypt your drive. This will go a long way to keeping the honest people honest. If you need to grant physical access to the machine, remove any sensitive data, especially if they need admin access to the machine. Depending on the sensitivity of the data, it may be worth swapping the drive entirely.
As mentioned, if you are interesting enough for someone to dig through your sensitive data, then you probably know it, and should do your best to lock things down. If you are not, assume that the tech may snoop around anyway just for kicks and giggles.
I remember hearing stories from more than one "PC repair" place which didn't just look at pictures and documents, but actively saved them off, saying they have to do that by state law to check for child pornography.
Best thing to do is save pictures and documents in an encrypted container that you mount when using the machine, with the PW not stored in your KeyChain. Disk Utility images are useful for local documents. For cloud storage, I use BoxCryptor which works as a transparent, encrypted pass-through for those.
I wish FileVault (the original which allows you to have your homedir as a sparse bundle) were still around. This would allow one to give a service tech a user to get past disk encryption, but wouldn't allow them into your home directory.
Best thing to do is save pictures and documents in an encrypted container that you mount when using the machine, with the PW not stored in your KeyChain. Disk Utility images are useful for local documents. For cloud storage, I use BoxCryptor which works as a transparent, encrypted pass-through for those.
I wish FileVault (the original which allows you to have your homedir as a sparse bundle) were still around. This would allow one to give a service tech a user to get past disk encryption, but wouldn't allow them into your home directory.