Best Buy's Geek Squad paid to find and report criminal images

Best Buy staff are paid by the FBI for reporting child abuse imagery, reports the EFF, moonlighting as snoops since the 2000s. This long-suspected activity was finally proven last year – a case against a Wisconsin doctor collapsed in federal court when it transpired someone was paid $500 to report a non-abusive image – but the extent of it was only revealed due to a FOIA request by the EFF. Best Buy, for its part, still insists it doesn't allow technicians to actively search people's computers for criminal activity.

The EFF began a Freedom of Information Act legal action to obtain the documents last year, after a doctor was prosecuted for child abuse imagery when Geek Squad technician reported an image of a naked child on his computer to FBI agents.

It was previously reported that the technician had been paid $500 (360) by the FBI.

The charges were dropped in November 2017 when a federal judge ruled that the image flagged by the Geek Squad technician was not sufficient evidence for the FBI to request a search warrant. The judge also ruled that the photograph did not qualify as child abuse imagery.

It's not reporting criminals that's bad. It's secretly paying low-paid technicians to find evidence and lying about it. This creates a financial incentive to manufacture criminal activity, the moral hazard for getting away with faking it, and looks awfully like a scheme to find just enough "evidence" to bully embarrassed and terrified people into plea bargains.

The delightful "Gov't Squad" illustration is by the EFF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlr8JjPrHG0