Tag Archive | "Violation"

Lawsuit Filed Against Best Buy’s Geek Squad

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There’s an interesting article on TG Daily today about a lawsuit that has been filed against Best Buy’s Geek Squad. The lawsuit was filed a while ago, but it’s now makings it’s way into the courts. An interesting development came recently when they introduced evidence in the form of an employee’s confession.

According to Minneapolis newspaper The Star Tribune, the lawsuit was filed quickly after an anonymous employee sent a letter to online consumer advocate site The Consumerist. In the letter, the employee wrote, “If you have any interesting pictures of yourself or others on your computer, then they — will — be — found.”

This is pretty shocking, that a seemingly reputable retail chains service division could be so mismanaged that their employees could even get away with something like this.

While Best Buy officially discounted the incident as an isolated problem, there have been multiple confessions sometimes anonymously of similar activities. Personally I can’t really fault the employees, as they are put in a position where due to an absence of proper supervision there is no repercussion for any kind of illicit activity and therefor lack of professionalism and ethics can lead to serious crimes being committed.

“It was dumb, and I regret that lapse in judgment. I have placed Best Buy in a precarious position, both legally and ‘reputationally,’” said Giffels. Several other people claiming to be Geek Squad employees have quietly admitted to doing the same kind of thing.

I’m sure at the time it seemed like a somewhat innocent thing, rifling through someones personal files. But when it became serious these employees appear to have realized that there is nothing innocent about invading a customer’s privacy and it can lead to serious criminal charges being filed against them and the company which is responsible for their actions.

The article quoted here can be viewed in it’s entirety here.

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