Another paedophile brought to book through his own idiocy

[streaky]

A Pennsylvania man took his PC into Circuit City to have a DVD burner installed.

Circuit City employees discovered child pronography on the hard drive and called the police, who arrested the man.

The Appeal Court ruled yesterday that he had no right of privacy as he had consented to the installation of the DVD drive and Circuit City needed to scan the existing hard drive for the installation files (sounds a bit 'weasely', but US law can be like that).

Whether it is of any relevance or not, the man's name was Kenneth Sodomsky!

Streaky

[MiniMac]

Remember reading about that, apparently the techs where 'testing the burner by searching for video files' and the judge thought this was 'acceptable testing procedure'.
They were looking for porn. Sad really that the lawmakers / enforcers are so out of touch.

[Brett928S2]

Hi

I own a computer shop and when a machine is in for work, if we finish the work early we often "clean out" the temp files and defrag the machine just to improve its general speed...

You would be amazed at how many "adult" pictures we see....sometimes its hard to keep a straight face when the customer comes to pick up a machine

If we ever saw child pornography ,then yes we would ring the police and if we got prosecuted for invasion of privacy, then so be it...by the way thats how Gary Glitter got caught...thank god !

All the best Brett

[esselte]

Brett928S2 said:

Hi

I own a computer shop and when a machine is in for work, if we finish the work early we often "clean out" the temp files and defrag the machine just to improve its general speed...

You would be amazed at how many "adult" pictures we see....sometimes its hard to keep a straight face when the customer comes to pick up a machine

If we ever saw child pornography ,then yes we would ring the police and if we got prosecuted for invasion of privacy, then so be it...by the way thats how Gary Glitter got caught...thank god !

All the best Brett

To remove the temp files and defrag you don't have to see any files.....admit it you like to be nosey....

[JustinP1]

Brett928S2 said:

Hi

I own a computer shop and when a machine is in for work, if we finish the work early we often "clean out" the temp files and defrag the machine just to improve its general speed...

You would be amazed at how many "adult" pictures we see....sometimes its hard to keep a straight face when the customer comes to pick up a machine

If we ever saw child pornography ,then yes we would ring the police and if we got prosecuted for invasion of privacy, then so be it...by the way thats how Gary Glitter got caught...thank god !

All the best Brett

By a strange twist of fate, in my sixth form and uni days I worked part time at PC World Bristol when he was caught.

I have heard the stories of the situation and content straight from the horses mouth of the tech guy himself. The situation was escalated out of the store hierarchy by management and 'allegedly' the powers that be said that the laptop should be returned as normal.

It was only the actions of a particular person, who was one of the best managers I ever had and a decent, honest guy to boot that chose to ring the police himself - and the rest as they say is history...

It goes to show that perhaps whilst since that time, Operation Ore and the like are in the public eye from this well publicised first case. However, if it were not for this one guy the publicity and the snowball of police pressure afterwards may not have happened.

[tribbles]

esselte said:

To remove the temp files and defrag you don't have to see any files.....admit it you like to be nosey....

Some people really are nosey. I was going to show a mate of mine pictures of the car I was building - he decided to jump on my computer and do a search for "*.JPG", rather than going to the "My Pictures" folder...

I didn't have anything other than pictures of my cats and my cars on it, but I know if he'd gone to a mechanic mate of mine's computer he'dve had his eyes opened...

[Brett928S2]

esselte said:

Brett928S2 said:

Hi

I own a computer shop and when a machine is in for work, if we finish the work early we often "clean out" the temp files and defrag the machine just to improve its general speed...

You would be amazed at how many "adult" pictures we see....sometimes its hard to keep a straight face when the customer comes to pick up a machine

If we ever saw child pornography ,then yes we would ring the police and if we got prosecuted for invasion of privacy, then so be it...by the way thats how Gary Glitter got caught...thank god !

All the best Brett

To remove the temp files and defrag you don't have to see any files.....admit it you like to be nosey....

Hi

Actually to remove the "hidden" temp files, you do have to look at the files names as a very minimum....you also have to turn on "show hidden and system files"

But yes I am nosey

All the best Brett

[supermono]

Brett928S2 said:

Actually to remove the "hidden" temp files, you do have to look at the files names as a very minimum....you also have to turn on "show hidden and system files"

Perhaps but you don't have to open a file in a viewer or look at thumbnails. You have no right to look at people's private stuff, you're despicable.

I wonder if you're the same when you're a guest in someone's house? Maybe you think it's ok to go upstairs and go through their bedroom drawers when they tell you where the toilet is?

If you were one of my employees you'd be instantly dismissed for your behaviour. You should be ashamed of yourself.

SM

[Brett928S2]

supermono said:

Brett928S2 said:

Actually to remove the "hidden" temp files, you do have to look at the files names as a very minimum....you also have to turn on "show hidden and system files"

Perhaps but you don't have to open a file in a viewer or look at thumbnails. You have no right to look at people's private stuff, you're despicable.

I wonder if you're the same when you're a guest in someone's house? Maybe you think it's ok to go upstairs and go through their bedroom drawers when they tell you where the toilet is?

If you were one of my employees you'd be instantly dismissed for your behaviour. You should be ashamed of yourself.

SM

Hi

Lol....good job I am the boss then....and "thumbnails or details" is a "user" setting....not my choice...

And going by your logic.....the guy at Pcworld who reported Gary Glitter would have been sacked long before he rang the BIB about that child porn

Can you live with that thought ??? Or more importantly could the next child he abused live with it ????

All the best Brett

[CommanderJameson]

Brett928S2 said:

supermono said:

Brett928S2 said:

Actually to remove the "hidden" temp files, you do have to look at the files names as a very minimum....you also have to turn on "show hidden and system files"

Perhaps but you don't have to open a file in a viewer or look at thumbnails. You have no right to look at people's private stuff, you're despicable.

I wonder if you're the same when you're a guest in someone's house? Maybe you think it's ok to go upstairs and go through their bedroom drawers when they tell you where the toilet is?

If you were one of my employees you'd be instantly dismissed for your behaviour. You should be ashamed of yourself.

SM

Hi

Lol....good job I am the boss then....and "thumbnails or details" is a "user" setting....not my choice...

And going by your logic.....the guy at Pcworld who reported Gary Glitter would have been sacked long before he rang the BIB about that child porn

Can you live with that thought ??? Or more importantly could the next child he abused live with it ????

All the best Brett

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear, right?

This is the sharp edge of the privacy debate. Where do you draw the line? I have nothing to hide, but I still don't expect to be treated like a potential criminal by people with no right so to do.

[JustinP1]

Brett928S2 said:

And going by your logic.....the guy at Pcworld who reported Gary Glitter would have been sacked long before he rang the BIB about that child porn

Can you live with that thought ??? Or more importantly could the next child he abused live with it ????

All the best Brett

The guy that found it reported it up to management. The guy who actually rung the police was a manager who had a young son at the time.

I think what you say is exactly what went through his mind. The guy that found it ended up with a lot of pressure on him, I think with regard to giving evidence and was off sick through stress for a while.

From what I heard from him 'allegedly' what was there was 'obviously' child porn, no grey area...

God knows how much bad publicity PC World got, which I think is why the head office call was to 'allegedly' not report it. In this case, from what I heard... 'allegedly of course'... there was no attempt to hide the files at all and they were stumbled upon whilst doing diagnostics.

I think I would have done the same in the same position. Of course, the manager who made up his own mind faced no repercussions as far as I am aware...

[GPSHead]

Brett928S2 said:

supermono said:

Brett928S2 said:

Actually to remove the "hidden" temp files, you do have to look at the files names as a very minimum....you also have to turn on "show hidden and system files"

you're despicable.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Hi

Lol....

All the best Brett

One might have expected a shocked/offended/unimpressed reaction, but no, water off a duck's back! I wonder if SM will try again?

(Not saying anything about who's right BTW!)

I wouldn't particularly mind someone being reported for child porn, however it was discovered, but illegal MP3s would be a different story. I don't doubt that there are some nosey repair technicians. But I think in the case of child porn the end quite possibly justifies the means, however it's discovered. If a nosey git found evidence on someone's computer that a fraud had been committed, or even a murder, I doubt many would argue with the result.

Those who routinely go through people's stuff for juicy pictures/documents (and I'm sure there are some who do) are tossers. But incriminating and/or private information can also be discovered by accident, and a nosey git who escalated something they'd discovered could easily make it look accidental. No amount of tightening up of procedure etc will change this much. Little can be done at the stores' end.

The only real solution is for the customer to take precautions. If I handed in my computer and there was anything on there that I didn't want other people to see, I'd either move it off the hard drive or put passwords on the relevant files. If I was wanted to be really sure I'd "shred" the empty disk space. The same as when I'm getting my car repaired, I take any valuables (and the front of the stereo) out of the car. Since you don't know for sure that everyone who will do the repairs is entirely trustworthy, it's not worth taking the risk and putting unnecessary temptation in anyone's path. It's just the way life is, and you've got to deal with reality rather than thinking "Ideally no-one would be nosey so I'm going to behave as though that's the case".

[Brett928S2]

GPSHead said:

Brett928S2 said:

supermono said:

Brett928S2 said:

Actually to remove the "hidden" temp files, you do have to look at the files names as a very minimum....you also have to turn on "show hidden and system files"

you're despicable.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Hi

Lol....

All the best Brett

One might have expected a shocked/offended/unimpressed reaction, but no, water off a duck's back! I wonder if SM will try again?

(Not saying anything about who's right BTW!)

I wouldn't particularly mind someone being reported for child porn, however it was discovered, but illegal MP3s would be a different story. I don't doubt that there are some nosey repair technicians. But I think in the case of child porn the end quite possibly justifies the means, however it's discovered. If a nosey git found evidence on someone's computer that a fraud had been committed, or even a murder, I doubt many would argue with the result.

Those who routinely go through people's stuff for juicy pictures/documents (and I'm sure there are some who do) are tossers. But incriminating and/or private information can also be discovered by accident, and a nosey git who escalated something they'd discovered could easily make it look accidental. No amount of tightening up of procedure etc will change this much. Little can be done at the stores' end.

The only real solution is for the customer to take precautions. If I handed in my computer and there was anything on there that I didn't want other people to see, I'd either move it off the hard drive or put passwords on the relevant files. If I was wanted to be really sure I'd "shred" the empty disk space. The same as when I'm getting my car repaired, I take any valuables (and the front of the stereo) out of the car. Since you don't know for sure that everyone who will do the repairs is entirely trustworthy, it's not worth taking the risk and putting unnecessary temptation in anyone's path. It's just the way life is, and you've got to deal with reality rather than thinking "Ideally no-one would be nosey so I'm going to behave as though that's the case".

Hi

I don't really have the time to be nosey...its just work to me...

I have seen just about everything you can imagine in peoples files and some things you probably cannot imagine...

When I am removing virii ,I "have" to look for strange files with correct or imitation file extensions as an example.

As I said, probably 90% plus of all computers have some sort of adult material on them , but as long as it is "ADULT", I really don't care.

Regarding illegal music or videos ,I don't care about those either and they are on well over 95% PLUS of computers.

I did once see what was named a "Snuff Movie".....and watched around 2 minutes of it, but it was a very bad fake so ignored it.If it had been genuine then yes I would have reported it, as would most computer technicians I think.

The point here to me at least is....if your own morals say so, then ring the police.

All the best Brett

Edited by Brett928S2 on Sunday 23 December 01:10

[streaky]

Brett928S2 said:

GPSHead said:

Brett928S2 said:

supermono said:

Brett928S2 said:

Actually to remove the "hidden" temp files, you do have to look at the files names as a very minimum....you also have to turn on "show hidden and system files"

you're despicable.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Hi

Lol....

All the best Brett

One might have expected a shocked/offended/unimpressed reaction, but no, water off a duck's back! I wonder if SM will try again?

(Not saying anything about who's right BTW!)

I wouldn't particularly mind someone being reported for child porn, however it was discovered, but illegal MP3s would be a different story. I don't doubt that there are some nosey repair technicians. But I think in the case of child porn the end quite possibly justifies the means, however it's discovered. If a nosey git found evidence on someone's computer that a fraud had been committed, or even a murder, I doubt many would argue with the result.

Those who routinely go through people's stuff for juicy pictures/documents (and I'm sure there are some who do) are tossers. But incriminating and/or private information can also be discovered by accident, and a nosey git who escalated something they'd discovered could easily make it look accidental. No amount of tightening up of procedure etc will change this much. Little can be done at the stores' end.

The only real solution is for the customer to take precautions. If I handed in my computer and there was anything on there that I didn't want other people to see, I'd either move it off the hard drive or put passwords on the relevant files. If I was wanted to be really sure I'd "shred" the empty disk space. The same as when I'm getting my car repaired, I take any valuables (and the front of the stereo) out of the car. Since you don't know for sure that everyone who will do the repairs is entirely trustworthy, it's not worth taking the risk and putting unnecessary temptation in anyone's path. It's just the way life is, and you've got to deal with reality rather than thinking "Ideally no-one would be nosey so I'm going to behave as though that's the case".

Hi

I don't really have the time to be nosey...its just work to me...

I have seen just about everything you can imagine in peoples files and some things you probably cannot imagine...

When I am removing virii ,I "have" to look for strange files with correct or imitation file extensions as an example.

As I said, probably 90% plus of all computers have some sort of adult material on them , but as long as it is "ADULT", I really don't care.

Regarding illegal music or videos ,I don't care about those either and they are on well over 95% PLUS of computers.

I did once see what was named a "Snuff Movie".....and watched around 2 minutes of it, but it was a very bad fake so ignored it.If it had been genuine then yes I would have reported it, as would most computer technicians I think.

The point here to me at least is....if your own morals say so, then ring the police.

All the best Brett

Edited by Brett928S2 on Sunday 23 December 01:10

The first two minutes might have been "a very bad fake", but the last two might have been real. Some years ago a routine 'flesh' scan of files on a server flagged one file. One of my juniors viewed it and reported that it was, in his words, "A 'straight sex' video." I asked whether he'd watched it all, and he hadn't. I told him to watch the entire thing (about twelve minutes). Shortly afterwards, and very contrite, he reported that in the last four minutes a large dog joined in the action! The person who'd downloaded the file was dismissed. On the basis of the first report, they would probably have just received a written warning (first offender, and an HR decision) - Streaky

[CommanderJameson]

Brett928S2 said:

Hi

I don't really have the time to be nosey...its just work to me...

I have seen just about everything you can imagine in peoples files and some things you probably cannot imagine...

When I am removing virii ,I "have" to look for strange files with correct or imitation file extensions as an example.

As I said, probably 90% plus of all computers have some sort of adult material on them , but as long as it is "ADULT", I really don't care.

Regarding illegal music or videos ,I don't care about those either and they are on well over 95% PLUS of computers.

I did once see what was named a "Snuff Movie".....and watched around 2 minutes of it, but it was a very bad fake so ignored it.If it had been genuine then yes I would have reported it, as would most computer technicians I think.

The point here to me at least is....if your own morals say so, then ring the police.

All the best Brett

• You do a manual virus scan? I'm impressed by your work ethic.
• It's not your job to inspect user files for legality (unless it's your (i.e. the company's) computer - that's an entirely different scenario where you have not just a right but a responsibility so to do, and a responsibility of non-disclosure to go with it)
• If you're going to invade privacy, you should exercise a consistent policy - i.e. you should report ALL illegal content, not just the stuff that jabs at your own sense of moral outrage
• Please let me know whereabouts in the country you are based, so I can avoid your company. I don't want you looking through my (entirely innocuous but private nonetheless) personal documents, in the unlikely event that my computer needs attention that I can't give it.

GPSHead said:

The only real solution is for the customer to take precautions. If I handed in my computer and there was anything on there that I didn't want other people to see, I'd either move it off the hard drive or put passwords on the relevant files. If I was wanted to be really sure I'd "shred" the empty disk space. The same as when I'm getting my car repaired, I take any valuables (and the front of the stereo) out of the car. Since you don't know for sure that everyone who will do the repairs is entirely trustworthy, it's not worth taking the risk and putting unnecessary temptation in anyone's path. It's just the way life is, and you've got to deal with reality rather than thinking "Ideally no-one would be nosey so I'm going to behave as though that's the case".

Very true, but there are situations where it's not possible for the user to take those precautions - where the OS won't start, or where there's hardware failure (say, for example, the disk is fine but the motherboard's toasted). That's when users want to be able to trust the Bretts of this world, and clearly can't. Which is a shame.

Edited by CommanderJameson on Sunday 23 December 08:59

[Retard]

What if the customer has a hidden partition that you will destroy when you do the defrag? And how much will a modern computer benefit from a defrag and temp file removal? Not that much I imagine. And if you clear their temporary files how are they supposed to browse adult websites offline ?

[CommanderJameson]

Retard said:

What if the customer has a hidden partition that you will destroy when you do the defrag? And how much will a modern computer benefit from a defrag and temp file removal? Not that much I imagine. And if you clear their temporary files how are they supposed to browse adult websites offline ?

Hidden partitions won't be destroyed by a defragmentation pass. Cleaning out temporary files can stop some applications from acting weirdly.

They'll only be visible in Disk Manager (Windows) or Disk Utility (OS X) or in the contents of /proc/partitions (Linux).

[bluepolarbear]

JustinP1 said:

God knows how much bad publicity PC World got, which I think is why the head office call was to 'allegedly' not report it. In this case, from what I heard... 'allegedly of course'... there was no attempt to hide the files at all and they were stumbled upon whilst doing diagnostics.

What bad publicity did they get? What happened to the manager?

[bluepolarbear]

Brett928S2 said:

The point here to me at least is....if your own morals say so, then ring the police.

Just testing where the morals lie - have you ever copied anything of interest?

[JustinP1]

bluepolarbear said:

JustinP1 said:

God knows how much bad publicity PC World got, which I think is why the head office call was to 'allegedly' not report it. In this case, from what I heard... 'allegedly of course'... there was no attempt to hide the files at all and they were stumbled upon whilst doing diagnostics.

What bad publicity did they get? What happened to the manager?

Well it was national news that someone had been caught at after having work done at a PC World tech centre... ergo one would assume that if you take your computer there they go through your private files.

Nothing happened to the manager in question. I don't know how much he thought of his own career in the decision he made. However his proverbial arse was covered. Imagine the unfair dismissal case around the fact you had rung the police to stop an active child porn user! Of course the case would have also brought into the public domain the 'head office' decision was to allegedly keep shtum.

As it was he was found not just to have stuff on his laptop but stuff all over his house, and now of course in prison in the far east on sex charges with a minor...

Edited by JustinP1 on Sunday 23 December 11:58