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/rant ON

Spoken like a person whom is truly ignorant of the circumstances. Persons in computer repair are not 'trained' to search out this information...

Consider the following.

Person A is a technician.
Person B is in need of technical assistance.
Person C is an outsider.

Person B indicates there is 'mission critical' information on their computer and it MUST be backed-up. Person A says "Hey, no problem. Do you need everything backed up, or just certain files?" Person B responds with "Just get everything, I don't want to lose anything important, and I don't remember where I saved everything." Person A begins the task, keeping a log file (as any good technician would).

Person C says "Hey! Log file! Why are you logging this?!"

Well Person C goes on ranting about privacy violations, snooping, and other such nonsense when the reality is this.

Person B expects everything to be backed up. Person A is going to attempt that. Person A (for practicality, time, and just plain productivity reasons) uses some type of program to copy the large amount of information (in literally tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands) of files. Person A, however, needs to report back to Person B anything which is NOT backed up (perhaps there is a bad sector on the HDD, or it's going bad, or they just have corrupt data) so that Person B can be sure their 'mission critical' information is saved. If something that IS 'mission critical' is NOT saved, then Person B has forewarning about it. As opposed to going to that next board meeting with the flow charts in hand of recent stock performance, then bringing it up on the projector only to find out that *gasp!* "Invalid file type. The format appears valid, however the data table is unrecognized." (or other such unrecoverable error). If Person B can be prepared for it, Person B can get (insert name of suitable assistant type here) to e-mail them a copy of (insert 'mission critical' information here).

Invasion of provacy? Not at all. Simply doing your job, and doing it WELL. How would you feel if your computer crashed, and you ABSOLUTELY needed information off of it (think perhaps family reunion pictures, or home movies, invoices, etc. Things that are irreplaceable if you don't have copies) and you made it abundantly clear that the information HAD to be backed up, and when it was done you asked if they were able to get anything and you were told "We're sorry, but we don't know. See, we aren't allowed to verify any type of data integrity, or really even that we copied anything. There might be something on that stack of DVDs we burned, then again, there might not. It could be just a bunch of random bits spread across the great optical fields."

You'd be pretty ticked off. I know I would.

As an aside, the fact that I wouldn't be taking my computer to have information backed up to a repair shop is irrelevant. Though, if all 3 of my computers were down, and I had no immediate way of getting them back up (say, I don't have the necessary parts, and for whatever reason cannot get them in a timely fashion) then yes I'd be taking them to someone to have them backed up.

It is irrelevant because I don't need to do that to understand the position they are in. And considering ANYONE who requests someone save their information invariably asks "So, what'd you get?" You have to have an answer for them.

I say again, don't crucify the techs for doing a good job. Technicians get scalded for all computer problems. It isn't OUR fault that users can't stay off of porn sites, or that they click "Yes" or "OK" to EVERYTHING that pops up, or that they use inferior ISP's, or that they REFUSE to PROPERLY protect themselves from Viruses/Spyware/Malware, or that Sony releases root-kits. These things are NOT our fault. Stop blaming us for them. And don't you DARE try and paint us as "The Bad Guys" when in the course of doing our job, someone gets in trouble.

I cannot use the analogy I was going to because of the "Please no violence" bit about posts. But the next time a Police officer snags a violent criminal, why don't you tell them they're wrong? Check yourselves. The technicians aren't at fault here, but a grossly distorted view of reality most certainly is.

/rant OFF