FBI Pays Best Buy Employees For Info On Customer's Computer

(RTTNews) - It has now emerged that some of Best Buy Co. Inc.'s (BBY) Geek Squad technicians have acted as paid FBI informants.

The information came to light in the case of a California doctor, Mark Rettenmaier, who has been accused of possessing child pornography and is facing federal charges.

The doctor had taken his computer to Best Buy's computer repair services for repair in 2011. One of Best Buy's Geek Squad technicians was an FBI informant, who reported that he accidentally located in the computer an image that met the definition of child pornography.

The information was then conveyed by the technician to the FBI and the hard drive of the doctor's computer was seized.

Rettenmaier's lawyer has claimed that FBI paid the Best Buy employee for turning over illegal content found on the doctor's computer.

While the possession of child porn picture is illegal, Rettenmaier's attorney is questioning the legality of how it was found. The pending court case raises questions about privacy and searches at computer repair shops.

Legal analysts say that the FBI could be violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from government searches without a warrant.

In addition, the files were said to have been found on the computer's "unallocated space," or the hard drive space that temporarily holds deleted files. A federal court has ruled that pornography found on unallocated space is not sufficient to prove that the user possessed it.

A Best Buy spokesman said the company and Geek Squad have no relationship with the FBI.

"From time to time, our repair agents discover material that may be child pornography and we have a legal and moral obligation to turn that material over to law enforcement. We are proud of our policy and share it with our customers before we begin any repair," the Best Buy spokesman said.