“They discreetly looked through my intimate photos” – one in two people are fooled without knowing it

A practice of these professionals at their disposal. which customers place all their trust in has just been denounced. It concerns more than half of the population. of them.

It is not uncommon for our smartphones to be damaged or have a bug so serious that we have to take them to a repairer. These specialists have complex tools to dismantle our devices and find the different reasons for our breakdowns. But are smartphone repairers as honest as they claim? This is what the CBCNews site tried to do. to know by conducting the survey in 20 stores specializing in repair.

To carry out their work, the journalists went to a wide range of specialists, ranging from small independents to large, well-known groups. in the field. They brought multiple devices such as smartphones and laptops, all equipped with monitoring software that allowed them to view the actions carried out by repairers. The devices sent for repair had several false personal information as well as intimate photos arranged within other more generic photos.

"The results are frightening", summarizes the director of this study: out of the 16 specialists consulted, 9 accessed the study. to the personal data of the devices and in particular to the intimate photos which were on the smartphones and computers entrusted to the repair store. These are therefore more than half of the population. smartphone repairers who have benefited from this from their location to spy on and even steal your personal information, intimate photos and videos. An observation which suggests that one in two customers have been fooled without the slightest doubt.

Some specialists have simply displayed the photos in “large format” preview. so as not to have to clicked on it, while others clicked directly on it. on the files in question to display them large on the smartphone or computer screen. The CBC article shows several screenshots of what the repairers were able to see: people in private or even intimate situations such as when trying on swimsuits or underwear, sometimes in the simplest device.

A technician looked through several folders of photos, including those with names like "Bikinis" or "Sleepwear". Some offenders even took care to delete the file browsing history in order to hide the fact that they had viewed the file. photos. "They erase their traces," confirms one of the investigators.

The results of this investigation were even further: one of the repairers was not satisfied with this. to view the photos that were on the device entrusted to you by CBC journalists. Spy software spotted that intimate photos had been taken. copied and pasted onto a key USB. The company in question was quickly dismissed. contacted and declared that it was an “isolated event” and that the technician had “suffered several disciplinary measures”. /em>