The Peek Squad Chronicles

As a former tech, I can tell you how tempting it is to browse other people’s files. And Killroy can tell you what it’s like to take some of these files home and play tug-of-war with his grounding strap. We got away with it, but the Geek Squad, Best Buy’s internal PC-Repair outfit, isn’t.

Following a newspaper article featuring whistle-blower Brett Haddock, there looks to now be a wave of dismissals including some Geek Squad supervisors. According to Brett, “They’re testosterone-driven geeks, and they’re going to look around. It’s the male prerogative. The temptation is always there.”

Here’s a run-down of the recent offenses: Hao Kuo Chi, a California agent, used his cell-phone to take a video of a client while on a house call. In May, the Consumerist featured an expose from an anonymous employee who wrote, “If you have any interesting pictures of yourself or others on your computer, then they — will — be — found.” David O’Hare, a former employee admitted that his shop had 50-100 gigabytes of music stolen off of various PC’s that anyone could grab from.

I am sure this is rampant. You have socially inept freaks making $8 an hour and you keep putting gigs of random data in front of them. The safest thing to do is probably to just consider that access a “perk” and look the other way. Of course, we did nearly abolish the sale of alcohol 100 years ago, so giving this a shot just… might… work.

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