Geek Squad: The Enforcers Houston Chronicle file photo
Got any file names on your computer’s hard drive that use double entendres? Do you get coy with what you call photos, documents or video files?
Given a recent ruling by a federal judge, you may want to go for a more, um, conventional naming convention . . .
Forbes.com’s Not-So-Private Parts blog reports on an Alabama case in which racy filenames on a computer brought for repair to the Geek Squad at a Best Buy resulted in the techs turning the PC over to law enforcement:
When the Geeks did their diagnostic scans of the computer, they found a pesky virus that appeared to be linked to specific files on Melton’s computer. Those particular files had names of a “very explicit nature,” says a judicial opinion in the case . . ., which led the Geeks to contact the police as they suspected they’d found child porn.
The suspect in the case, Corey Beantee Melton, argued that he had not personally downloaded the files, suggesting they appeared on his hard drive through peer-to-peer file-sharing programs. That defense didn’t fly, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
But on appeal, Melton argued his Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure had been violated. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals begged to differ and upheld his conviction.
The Court determined that Melton’s expectation of privacy for explicitly-named files was unreasonable. “Based on the purpose and goals underlying the statutes criminalizing the possession of child pornography, it is clear that, at the point when officers were looking at the filenames on the computer, any expectation of privacy in files that had names that were highly suggestive of child pornography was not an expectation that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable,” wrote Presiding Judge Kelli Wise, in deciding that the officers had not violated Melton’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
Of course, if you don’t have kiddie porn or other illicit material on your PC, you shouldn’t have much to worry about. And, hopefully, you’re smart enough not to drop off a porn-laced portable for repair at a Best Buy in the first place.
But you may now want to think twice before naming your files in a suggestive manner. Getting cute could earn you some unwanted legal attention.
