http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2324220,00.asp

by Brian Heater

From its Texas Rangers to its enthusiastic take on the death penalty, the Lone Star State has long been known for its aggressive stance on law enforcement. Thanks to a strange new law, it's a sting that may soon be felt by a number of the state's computer-repair people.

A recently passed law requires that Texas computer-repair technicians have a private-investigator license, according to a story posted by a Dallas-Fort Worth CW affiliate.

In order to obtain said license, technicians must receive a criminal justice degree or participate in a three-year apprenticeship. Those shops that refuse to participate will be forced to shut down. Violators of the new law can be hit with a $4,000 dollar fine and up to a year in jail, penalties that apply to customers who seek out their services.

Some of the area's larger companies already employee technicians with PI licenses, a fact which generally doesn't apply to small computer repair shops.

Ok I'll bite; what is the logic behind requiring a P.I. License???

yeshuas wrote:

Ok I'll bite; what is the logic behind requiring a P.I. License???

Probably the fact that you are dealing with people's private data, which could be potentially sensitive.

My question is how this affects Best Buy and Circuit City, and any other large chain that does PC repair work. Do all Geek Squad people in TX now need a PI license? And what if the person watches you work on their system, would you then need to have a PI License as you aren't doing anything that the system owner can't see.

imnuts wrote:

yeshuas wrote: Ok I'll bite; what is the logic behind requiring a P.I. License??? Probably the fact that you are dealing with people's private data, which could be potentially sensitive. My question is how this affects Best Buy and Circuit City, and any other large chain that does PC repair work. Do all Geek Squad people in TX now need a PI license? And what if the person watches you work on their system, would you then need to have a PI License as you aren't doing anything that the system owner can't see.

In all my years of working on peoples computers, I have never even thought about looking at their data, and I work on attorneys, CPA's etc. computers............

You might not have done but you can bet your bottom dollar that an awful lot of people have!

I know that when I was working at the support desk in school, we weren't supposed to look at anything unless something suspicious showed up in the normal process of working on the machine. They didn't want us invading people's privacy any more than we had to, though I'm sure that some people didn't really care and looked at stuff anyway.