Before Seeking Fort Lauderdale Computer Repair, Read This
The next time you drop your computer off at a Ft. Lauderdale computer service, you might think about what kind of personal data you leave on the machine.
According to the Courier-Press, a Chicago couple recently took a computer down to Best Buy for disposal since they were replacing it. The Geek Squad, the computer repair center located within Best Buy stores, promised to drill holes in their drive and render it useless.
A few weeks later, though, the couple received a call from a person who had their hard drive - which he bought at a flea market for $25.
Yes. Instead of destroying the drive as promised, someone at the computer service sold the drive, data intact, at a flea market.
Luckily, the man who purchased it was not malicious, and instead erased all of the prior owners' data after informing them he found it.
But it could have been much, much worse.
Besides pictures and documents, a computer's hard drive can contain fiscal records or personal data such as one's Social Security number. With this data, identity theft is a very real possibility.
Geek Squad claims issues like this are rare, and surely this is claim is at least somewhat valid, as most Best Buys are not in the business of breaching privacy and trust.
But there has been enough chatter of this nature to make one skeptical of recommending the chain over a smaller, independent Fort Lauderdale computer repair center.
Consumerist.com, a blog that documents stories of large corporations not meeting customer expectations, has gotten countless horror stories from unhappy Geek Squad customers around the U.S.
Moreover, Consumerist has received tips and tell-alls from former Geek Squaders on how they snooped through computers to find private documents, music and other data.
The bottom line?
Take extra steps to protect yourself and your data before you send your machine in anywhere, whether you go to big retailer or turn to a smaller service for computer repair in Fort Lauderdale.
Back up your hard drive and remove any personal or financial data. You should do that if you're worried about a technician snooping through your photos and documents, but mostly due to the risks of identity theft.
