The FBI has been in cahoots with Best Buy’s Geek Squad for at least the past decade, new documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit reveal. An FBI memo obtained by the nonprofit digital rights group reveals that Best Buy in September 2008 hosted a meeting of the law enforcement agency’s Cyber Working Group at a Geek Squad repair facility in Kentucky. The memo indicates that the local FBI division “has maintained close liaison with
the Geek Squad’s management in an effort to glean case initiations and to support the division’s Computer Intrusion and Cyber Crime programs.” Revelations about the FBI’s relationship with Best Buy first surfaced last year during the prosecution of Mark Rettenmaier, a California doctor who was charged with possession of child porn after bringing his computer to Geek Squad for a repair. The relationship, according to the EFF, “potentially circumvents computer owners’ Fourth Amendment rights.” READ MORE
