EFF Sues Over FBI FOIA Refusal on Computer Repair Surveillance, Including at Best Buy

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against DOJ to get records about any FBI use of Best Buy employees and other U.S. computer repair facility informants to do warrantless searches of customers’ computers. The FBI denied EFF's FOIA request for such information, saying bureau policy is not to discuss existence or lack thereof of records about something of investigatory interest, the group said Wednesday in a complaint for injunctive relief to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (case 1:17-cv-01039). But the group said it didn't seek documents about Best Buy itself, as the FBI apparently believed. "The records request aims to shed light on how the FBI co-opts Best Buy repair technicians in criminal investigations, and whether the computer searches they conducted were in effect government searches," said an EFF news release. "Court records in a child pornography case against a California man who sent his computer to Best Buy for repair showed a long, close relationship between company technicians and the FBI, according to media reports." Best Buy, where Geek Squad staff apparently cooperated with the government, and DOJ didn't comment Thursday.