If You Take Your Computer To A Computer Repair Technician, You Must Read This First
If you are not a technical person, there is no shame in that. You may have skills that I.T people do not have. They may pay you for your service like fixing their car; like-wise, you pay them to fix your computer. However… how well do you, know and trust your computer technician before you hand over your personal data and provide them with full access to your computer?
The Trust Factor
Do you trust the person that fixes your computer or not? Is the person a complete stranger, a friend, or a relative? Because when you hand your computer over to them, they will likely have access to all your photo’s, emails, and personal documents. You will need to trust them and ensure they do not crawl around your computer to find information about you such as, your recently visited webpages or photos that are for your eyes only. Keep in mind, by knowing someone; they may more likely want to snoop around, compared to a complete stranger who has no interest in your personal life. On the contrary, someone that you know may respect your privacy and not go snooping around, while someone you do not know will want to get to know the real you better.
So what can you do about it to protect yourself from the person you pay to fix your computer from snooping around your computer files?
Watch Them Fix It
A simple approach is to watch them fix it in front of you. Not only do you get to learn and ask them questions, you can also ensure they do not open any personal files. If a computer technician cannot fix your computer in front of you, you may want to reconsider using their service. Keep in mind, some computer repair services like a re-installation may take some time, and while they wait for the computer to do its thing, they fix their other customer’s computers. Therefore, there is a chance that they will like it for the entire day. It’s best to use your judgement, or ask in the comment if you are not sure how long a computer fix may take.
Log Out Of Websites
It is important that before you hand your computer over to someone is that you log out of websites you are logged into. This can include Facebook (& other social media websites), or Gmail (& other email clients). I do not think you want someone else viewing your private Facebook pictures or posting promotional services on your timeline.
Clear Your Web Browser History, Cookies and other Data
Better yet is to remove your web browsers history, cookies, sessions, and other data. I have covered how to do this in a previous FAQ “How do I delete my web browsers cookies and private data”.
Encrypt Your Files
Encrypting your files means that someone without the correct password, or key, will not be able to read the encrypted file. By encrypting files, only you will have access. There are a number of programs that you can use such as VeraCrypt, Bitlocker, DiskCryptor, CipherShed and FileVault 2.
Delete Those Photo’s
If you have photos stored on your computer that you do not want others to see, and possibly leak on the internet; you may want to delete them, or move them to an external hard drive for safekeeping. This goes for any time of file, not just pictures.
Fix It Yourself
One other thing you can do which will also save you money is to try to fix your computer yourself. Any type of computer problem imaginable can be answered on this website – the same website computer technicians use. Alternatively, you can ask me for help.
Horror Stories
So make sure you know who is fixing your computer, you do not want one of these horror stories written about you.
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1201483/Undercover-footage-finds-IT-staff-repair-firms-spy-personal-files.html
- http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/13/perv-squad-best-buy-employees-allegedly-steal-nude-photos-off-girls-laptop/
- http://www.spamfighter.com/News-16298-PC-Technician-Convicted-for-Installing-Spyware-on-Computers-of-Clients.htm
Photo credit: The National Guard via photopin cc
I have nothing shameful to hide on my computer. However I have intellectual property on my computer, and that information needs to be protected. So I always insist on watching my computer get repaired.
If you’re overly-protective of your system that leads the tech into believing you’ve got something to hide. I work as a field service tech and one guy in particular years back gave off a very creepy pedo sorta vibe, and he was always hovering over my damn shoulder while I was installing his new backup hard drive and making sure the files copied via his RAID-1 configuration. Given his protectiveness and mannerisms I’m almost convinced that computer had some illicit, possibly illegal stuff on it.
I’d recommend storing your sensitive documents on a Corsair padlock USB drive with the locking feature requiring you to physically press in a PIN on the stick itself before it will even show up on the computer its connected to. If too many failed PIN attempts are made then the drive wipes all the stored data. It’s like one of those internal self-destruct drives with a built-in thermite charge, only it’s portable and won’t burn a hole through concrete. You could further encrypt it using Windows’ BitLocker so even if someone has the PIN the contents are encrypted and only accessible from your PC, or those with the decryption key file.
you have explain very well about how to repair computer. I really like it.
Thanks. Glad you like it.
My computer shut down, something over heated and I wasn’t able to log out.
My computer has a password on it any way, can they still by-pass my password to view my private folders?
That depends how your computer is set up, and why Operating System you are using.
But basically yes. It is most likely that could take out your hard drive and view all the files that way.
If you want to make your files private, you need to encrypt them. That being said, if you lose your decryption keys, you lose all your files too.
“If a computer technician cannot fix your computer in front of you, you may want to reconsider using their service.”
Depends on the fix. I don’t need someone breathing down my neck while I spend several hours performing diagnostics and running scans because some computer-illiterate troglodyte is paranoid I’ll look at their C:\NOTPORN\ folder. If they want me to stick around and waste my time; sitting and spinning on my thumb while waiting for lengthy scans to complete on their slow-ass DELL that I could have let run back at base while working on OTHER systems, then the charge will be commensurate with my delay.
Recently my sister’s computer got a virus and now the computer isn’t working properly. You mentioned that a simple approach is to watch them fix it in front of you and not only do you get to learn and ask them questions, you can also ensure they do not open any personal files. Do most technicians offer to let you watch them work? It seems that hiring a computer professional to help her may be beneficial.
This is some really good information about computer repairs. I liked that you pointed out that it would be smart to log out of all of your social media accounts on the computer before hand. I didn’t think about how that would be a smart thing to do. I know that it would be smart for me to write down my passwords so I don’t forget it.
I had my tax information and copy of investment account statement on the desktop, labeled that way. I intended to remove it to a thumb drive before handing over the machine, but forgot. This person works out of his house and was a stranger. I have been worried ever since about that financial info. Too much identity theft around these days.