OMG, Don’t Trust Your Computer Repairman!

I’m seriously in shock with this news from Engadget.

Sky News in the UK dropped a brand new laptop off at several repair shops in London (equipped with a key logger and sneaky video recording software) they caught employees accessing personal data, hacking accounts for banking and social networking sites, and charging for unnecessary work. – Engadget

I’m not surprised with the ‘charging for unnecessary work’. Trust me, the last time I brought a laptop to a service center (an authorized Apple service center, no less), the laptop that I brought came back to me in the same condition when I brought it there!

Augh. Just remembering what happened is giving me a headache. I probably spent half an hour arguing with the service guy. Seriously, just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about computers! *Rar*

Anyway, back to the topic.

So, there. As I was saying, I’m not surprised about the ‘charging for unnecessary work’, but the thought of the repairmen actually snooping around for your social networking site passwords, email account passwords and your bank account passwords is waaaay disturbing. Call me naive, but it never occurred that people could be that despicable!

Good thing I read this article so I can make the necessary cautionary measures when I drop off Big Mimi at the Apple hospital for repairs! #1 Clear the cache and history, #2 Clear my keychains, #3 Make sure I don’t have any secret and/or sensitive emails (especially ones that contain passwords!) in my Apple Mail, #4 Hmm what else?

Any other suggestions on how to keep your computer snoop-proof when you bring it in for repairs?

[ Image courtresy of Sky News ]