mudskipper
Technical User
Okay, I have thought about this one until my head hurt. It almost goes along the lines of some other recent posts, but with a twist. I am VERY curious to see how others would react on this one....forgive me if this becomes rather longwinded!
At the PC repair shop that I worked at for some time, we had a customer come in for repair. He signed the work order, and then he left. We took the system in back, and while working on it, the technician saw something that he shouldn't have.
Now, let me interrupt myself here--it really WAS an accident. The customer had that *DAMN* single click setting turned on. When the tech went to click on a file (in list view), he simply missed it and clicked the jpg.
What came up was child pornography. Now......
What do you do? Do you notify the authorities and sacrifice potential business if the word got out that we were *alledgedly* poking around private files? Do you turn a blind eye? Your answer might have to be thought about a bit more if you consider some of the recent court procedings (in the US) that basically argue that it is not illegal to have this crap if it is "generated" material, and not an actual photo.... Do you dole out some good ol' vigilante justice (mwah hah hah hah!!!!)?
In case you are wondering, we did call the authorities (anonymously) and gave them a general rundown. They told us that there was really nothing that they could do in this case (although they would not say why). They said that it was better to leave it alone. So the guy goes on his way. I always wondered if I should have pressed the issue, but....
Incidentally, after this episode, we were sure to include a statement on the work order that we required the customer to sign. It was something to the effect of "although no documents will be intentionally viewed, it is possible that any data (including documents, pictures, and email) on this computer may be seen by our technicians during the normal course of repairing this PC".
So what do you think? Would you report the guy? If so, do you think that he could have been prosocuted anyway? If you wouldn't squeal on the guy, then why not--just because of the potential for lost business? Even better--is it bad that we did call the authorities on that guy, but not on the guy that had the 'stealing cable' website listed in favorites (I know, I know, quite different--but still makes for a good argument ;-) )?
ps I still think that the vigilane justice this is pretty good! Mudskipper
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Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"
At the PC repair shop that I worked at for some time, we had a customer come in for repair. He signed the work order, and then he left. We took the system in back, and while working on it, the technician saw something that he shouldn't have.
Now, let me interrupt myself here--it really WAS an accident. The customer had that *DAMN* single click setting turned on. When the tech went to click on a file (in list view), he simply missed it and clicked the jpg.
What came up was child pornography. Now......
What do you do? Do you notify the authorities and sacrifice potential business if the word got out that we were *alledgedly* poking around private files? Do you turn a blind eye? Your answer might have to be thought about a bit more if you consider some of the recent court procedings (in the US) that basically argue that it is not illegal to have this crap if it is "generated" material, and not an actual photo.... Do you dole out some good ol' vigilante justice (mwah hah hah hah!!!!)?
In case you are wondering, we did call the authorities (anonymously) and gave them a general rundown. They told us that there was really nothing that they could do in this case (although they would not say why). They said that it was better to leave it alone. So the guy goes on his way. I always wondered if I should have pressed the issue, but....
Incidentally, after this episode, we were sure to include a statement on the work order that we required the customer to sign. It was something to the effect of "although no documents will be intentionally viewed, it is possible that any data (including documents, pictures, and email) on this computer may be seen by our technicians during the normal course of repairing this PC".
So what do you think? Would you report the guy? If so, do you think that he could have been prosocuted anyway? If you wouldn't squeal on the guy, then why not--just because of the potential for lost business? Even better--is it bad that we did call the authorities on that guy, but not on the guy that had the 'stealing cable' website listed in favorites (I know, I know, quite different--but still makes for a good argument ;-) )?
ps I still think that the vigilane justice this is pretty good! Mudskipper
___________________________________________________________________________________
Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"
. So we had many an occasion to go diving for the monitor before the customers (kids included) could see it! Drove me nuts, especially as many of them were repeat customers and KNEW that it would power up in front of others! Are people really that dumb? Don't answer that, I know, I know....