have my laptop back and..

[sarafet]

i'm a bit shocked.

just went into my history and on tuesday someone had been looking through my photos - more specifically - pictures of me in a bikini on holiday

i actually feel sick at the thought of this.. i also had a scanned picture of my passport on the laptop and this was in tuesdays history too is there anything someone could do with this?

this was a reputable computer repairs shop i put it into to be fixed (or so i thought..) can't believe i've just paid £120 to a bunch of ar**holes i feel sick at the thought of someone now having photos of me

what do you all think?

sarah xxx

 

[sarah2807]

Gosh!! Thst's shocking...how cheeky!! i bet they thought you wouldn't know wot they'd been up to!! I'm not sure what you could do really hun...could you maybe ring the company and say what you have noticed? At least it might make thoses who did it feel ashamed and hopefully they'll get a b@?l*ock@?g!!
I'm not surprised you are you don't even know who these people are!!!!
Defo try complain!!

 

[Sherlock]

Grrrrr things like that are so shit I'd be really pissed if that happened to me. Sorry its happened to you

I'd contact them and query why someone accessed those files when it was not there for anything connected with that. I'd make it a formal complaint in writing after calling and asking to speak to the manager and informing them as to what you have discovered. They should know who worked on your computer easily enough.

I'd be very unhappy if it happened to me. I've never taken any computer to be repaired as I have a hubby who can build them from scratch and can repair also. But I'd be in that store giving them polite hell and wanting to know wtf had gone on and also to ensure it never happens again. If you need to take it further than the store itself, look to further up the foodchain.

I'm not sure but if they only looked at the pics etc then they can't do anything else. They would have to have downloaded them to somewhere to use them elsewhere. You could really kick off a stink if you feel someone has downloaded stuff of your computer. I'd also look to contacting Trading Standards http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/ and explaining to them what you think has happened and if there is anything to be done. Its a bit of a long shot but if you read your agreement with the repair shop it probably falls outside of their 'repair'. Or contact CAB and see if they can offer any pointers.

Its always worth removing anything personal from your computer if you can when it needs to go in for repairs. To a back up external hard drive if you can. Don't leave it on the computer.

Be sure to keep calm when contacting them, plan out in note form what you wish to say and be sure to follow it up with a letter. You want to find out what happened here. Its an invasion of privacy IMHO. And a breaking of a trust.

 

[Suzie and Faith]

definately complain. That is TOTALLY out of order and kinda freaky!

 

[Happybunny]

Sherlock speaks the truth! I would do as she suggests, it is disgusting!

 

[debecca]

Horrific!

Sherry speaks a lot of sense here, particularly in terms of removing personal data in future before the repair. However, just because there is data on there does NOT give the fixer the right to trawl through it. Sicko

Feel for you

 

[lfc_sarah]

Makes you think doesnt it

 

[Geordie&Bairn]

id complain hunny
they should be ashamed of themsleves
makes me mad to think they have gone through your personal files
sorry youve had to go through this

sarah

 

[muppetmummy]

I would definately complain too. Wonder how they will talk themselves out of that one the perves!

 

[Sherlock]

My hubby said (computer geek he is) that alas its not unusual for that sort of thing to happen when taking your computer for repair. Not saying every repair store or person working in them is a perv or something but he said it goes on more than people really think. Many home computer users really have no idea of how to check this sort of thing and don't bother to learn

His thing is to always always remove anything you would not want seen to a back up external hard drive so it is not on your computer at all when you take it in to the store.

Its not like they have hours to sit and read all your emails etc. They are supposed to be fixing your computer but some may have the odd peek into places still.

My other suggestion for anyone in the future would be to boot it up in store and check the history before you leave so you can see if anyone has been where they shouldn't during the time its been in for repair. If you find something you can ask then and there why those files were accessed.

 

[nancy]

This sort of thing has been going on for years. I think it was PC World that found incriminating evidence on Glitter's computer.

I'm not condoning that they look through personal files in the slightest but it's a bit like handing someone your diary to look after for a while. The only way to keep your stuff private on your computer is to save it to disk and get rid of the evidence from your machine. x

 

[Flame]

We got ours back from repair a few weeks back and i am worried incase someone has done the same thing, also i have all my accounts so that they log straight in rather than me having to put the password in all the time. This has made me even more paranoid now better go get it out and check it.

 

[Ginnymarie]

oooh

get their arse kicked, that is awful !

 

[sarafet]

thanks everyone, i've calmed down a bit today about it, still disgusted though

i'm going to give them a call in the morning about it.. i'm also going to have a look on the trading standards website and get some info.. thanks everyone for your comments and thanks sherry for the info, will defo be putting everything on my external h/d from now on i just keep thinking -what if it was pictures of the baby or something, you just don't know what kind of people are out there, makes me sick

xx