Wednesday, July 11, 2007

My laptop.. my life

yesterday i turned my laptop on like i usually do, looking forward to surfing and maybe listening to some music. the power light went on and that's about the only thing that did. black screen, no startup beep, nothing. it just completely stopped working.

so later that day, i headed to toshiba to get it fixed on warranty. on my way there i couldnt help but think that whoever was gonna fix it will have access to all my personal files and pictures and everything, and quite frankly i dont know how to feel about that.

not that there's anything super confidential, but i feel a bit exposed and that my privacy could be breached should my laptop fall into the wrong hands.

are we at the mercy of computer technicians ? are we too paranoid about others spying on us ?

the eagles said it best - "we are all just prisoners here, of our own device"

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet they take/copy whatever they want too...even if u delete stuff they can still dig for it or something...hmmm no u'll be fine

Anonymous said...

I feel they do copy whatever they want to and that is just cuz ur in kuwait and no respect for privacy :)

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who's a photo studio , he does keep a copy of all the sexy babe's .So yep ! you are a prisoner of your own device !

Grey said...

OK that sounds totally bad ! what i mean to say is there are perverts out there , so if you have personal things like photographs and stuff , chances are that your privacy will be invaded...

Next time i will read my comments before i publish them !

Joud said...

gee thanks guys i feel better now . . not !!!

Unknown said...

Funny you should mention this, I came across an article a few days ago about technicians at Best Buy (Geek Squad) stealing porn (or personal pictures) caught on video. The PC was recording everything they were doing! :)
It happens.. check the full story here...
http://consumerist.com/consumer/investigations/video-consumerist-catches-geek-squad-stealing-porn-from-customers-computer-271963.php

OutOfReach said...

well some do copy whatever they want they dont respect the privacy of any one , lots of sick people out there , i'm sorry to say that but its the truth ! so i advice you to take your device to someone you trust.
thats what i do ...

Nomad said...

well there are measures you can take to prevent such a thing from happening. it requires some research but well if you spend most ur time online or you have stuff you don't want anyone to tamper with its worth a few hours of your time.
i usually fix all my computers my self unless i'm really lazy or its something beyond my skill :p
the most basic thing you should/can do is
A) safe guard you account with a password.
B) setup a separate account for technicians to use where they dont have access to your private documents. (if i remember correctly users on windows cant access other users documents, i'm not that close to windows XD)
C) use any of the widely available encryption programs to encrypt your private data.
the list goes on an on but you get the point :p

of course those steps can only be taken before such incidents happen, but u don't make mistakes you wont learn :p
lol this turned out to be too long XD

MacaholiQ8 said...

There's one simple solution that the least of us do. Always backup your personal stuff in an external hard drive and remove them from your laptop/computer.

Nomad said...

i've whooped up a quick post about windows security if your interested in learning more about it :p

Anonymous said...

Remove the HD. They don't need it to fix your laptop. Unless there is a problem with the HD. But from what you mentioned it seems to be a power problem and/or overheat.

Then again, didn't see the laptop so I can't diagnose what's really wrong with it.

Like I said, remove the HD & battery. Give them only the laptop with power adapter. :)

Joud said...

n.: oh no, not my porn collection ! kidding but seriously that is so bad, what a perv !

outofreach: there aren't a lot of computer specialists in my circle :-s and yes there are lots of sickos out there

nomad: i do have an account password but i do know it's easy to get around it in windows. B/ and C/ are a good idea

criticizer: yeah right do u do that ? didnt think so :P

Я: interesting - the problem turned out to be in the motherboard so i guess i could've taken out the HD :/ it's separate from the board, right ?

Joud said...

oh and btw i talked to them today and they said they needed 7 to 10 days to fix it, so plenty of time for snoopers to get a load of MY files :/

Anonymous said...

Joud: Only thing you need the HD for is if your operating system goes bad OR if the HD makes funny noises suddenly & the system dies.

So you don't need the HD for anything except for Windows problems. :)

Anonymous said...

Joud: Sorry for the dual comments, but you can still go & get your HD. They'll be whining, but tell them you need it.

Joud said...

u know what Я i think i will

Reem B. said...

ouch ... !
I really do understand what you mean by your laptop your life. same here!

and hey!! I love that song of the eagles! One of the best!

"Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" one of my fav lines :P

MacaholiQ8 said...

Actually I do. I didn't get me a 320GB hard drive for nothing. ;)

Joud said...

can3rian: my fave - "she's got a lotta pretty pretty boys, that she calls friends" ;)

criticizer: oh :->

Gay by Nature said...

well dah !! there is somethin called external hard disk.. you can transfer all your files to it before you give it away to the technian .. :|

Joud said...

gay by nature: i couldn't turn my laptop on anymore, and hence i couldn't access or move my files