The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last year after it learned that the FBI allegedly paid Geek Squad employees to pass along information about illegal materials on devices sent in by customers for repairs.
One search led to felony child porn charges against Dr. Mark Rettenmaier after a technician reportedly went through the oncologist’s deleted files and called the FBI in 2011. In 2017, a judge ruled that the images found in Rettenmaier’s computer could not be considered child porn and the invasive search was illegal. All of the charges were dropped and the case was dismissed after a judge said an FBI agent made “false and misleading statements” to obtain a search warrant for the doctor’s house.