Justice Department Sued over FBI Trained Geek Squad Spies. The Justice Department was sued Wednesday by a privacy group seeking information on the FBI recruitment of Best Buy employees to search consumer computers for child pornography during repairs a practice that came to light in court documents in a recent case in Santa Ana, California. The Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Trump administrations Justice Department, demanding access to records about any FBI training and payment to Geek Squad workers to search customer computers without a court warrant. Best Buy spokesman Jeff Shelman said in a written statement  that Geek Squad does not work for the FBI and never has. At issue isnt the criminality of child pornography or efforts to stop the exploitation of children by sexual predators. EFF is concerned that the FBI may be violating the constitutional requirement that law enforcement agencies obtain judge approved search warrants, based on evidence there is probable cause of a crime, to search computers. Also Read James Comey Plans to Testify Publicly About Pressure From POTUS ReportInformants who are trained, directed, and paid by the FBI to conduct searches for the agency are acting as government agents, EFF civil liberties director David Greene said in a written statement. On the official website of Crystal Head Vodka, Dan Akroyd talks about the crystal skulls as follows. Buy Crystal Head Vodka here. The worlds leading online source of ebooks, with a vast range of ebooks from academic, popular and professional publishers. The FBI cannot bypass the Constitutions warrant requirement by having its informants search peoples computers at its direction and command. Best Buy spokesman Shelman said that the company learned that four employees may have received payment after turning over alleged child pornography to the FBI, which was in very poor judgement and inconsistent with our training and policies. Three of the workers are no longer with the company and the fourth has been reprimanded and reassigned, he said. EFF, a San Francisco based nonprofit privacy group, sued the Justice Department after the government refused a request for documents about how the FBI recruits, trains and pays Best Buy workers to find illegal child pornography on customer computers sent to Best Buy for repairs. The public has a right to know how the FBI uses computer repair technicians to carry out searches the agents themselves cannot do without a warrant, EFF senior counsel David Sobel said in a statement. People authorize Best Buy employees to fix their computers, not conduct unconstitutional searches on the FBIs behalf. Also Read Hollywoods Notable Deaths of 2. PhotosThe FBI refused to provide records to EFF, citing the agencys policy of not confirming or denying ongoing investigations. But court documents in federal court in Santa Ana, California, argue that the FBI has launched a program of training and paying Geek Squad employees to look for child pornography on customer computers sent in for repairs, and to report the porn to authorities. The OC Weekly first reported in March that court documents revealed an extensive secret relationship. I/817FiyTDwhL._SY445_.jpg' alt='Buy Totally Spies! The Movie Movie' title='Buy Totally Spies! Malevolent Video Download here. The Movie Movie' />5 bucks to rent 10 to buy HELL YEAH. Ive seen this amazing movie a million times and was going to rent it the other night. I saw the price to buy the digital copy. Its hard to look at the movieor any of Cassinis hauntingly beautiful imagesand not think of something appropriately morose for its Grand Finale. FBI and Best Buys Geek Squad, including evidence the agency trained company technicians on law enforcement operational tactics, shared lists of targeted citizens and, to covertly increase surveillance of the public, encouraged searches of computers even when unrelated to a customers request for repairs. Also Read 1. Women Who Have Left Fox News Shows, From Megyn Kelly to Laurie Dhue PhotosThe relationship between the FBI and Best Buy came to light in the criminal case of U. S. v. Rettenmaier. Dr. Mark Rettenmaier, a Newport Beach, California obstetrics and gynecology specialist, is charged with knowingly possessing child pornography after Geek Squad employees reported to authorities that they allegedly found an illicit image during repairs of his computer in 2. The criminal case was delayed after Rettenmairchallenged the search of his computer and his home. Rettenmaiers lawyers argue that sealed government documents reveal the FBI trained and paid Geek Squad employees, turning them into FBI agents, and therefore would have required a search warrant before Geek Squad employees could search the doctors computer, according court documents cited by the Washington Post. Also Read 1. 1 Shows That Arent About Trump But Totally Were PhotosProsecutors disagree, noting that authorities obtained a search warrant for the doctors computer and home after Best Buy employees reported alleged evidence of child pornography to authorities. The warrant enabled search led to the discovery of thousands of images of child pornography, according to a brief by assistant U. S. attorneys Anthony Brown and Gregory Scally. The Fourth Amendment is offended by none of this, federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Nothing unreasonable occurred here, and there was no arbitrary invasion of anyones privacy by governmental officials and theres not a shred of evidence that anyone at the FBI directed anyone at Geek Squad City to detect and locate child pornography. Fox News has enhanced the careers of numerous women who have served as hosts. All were hired by Roger Ailes, the former network boss who exited in August 2. Greta Van Susteren who had been one of Ailes most stalwart defenders left in early September 2. Fox had not felt like a home for years. Laurie Dhue was a familiar presence on Fox in the early 2. She has reportedly been shopping a tell all book this year. Outspoken host Elisabeth Hasselbeck left The View to join Fox Friends in 2. Andrea Tantaros, former co host of The Five, filed a lawsuit saying that Fox News operated like a sex fueled, Playboy Mansion like cult. Alisyn Camerota hosted a number of Fox News programs during a 1. She now hosts New Day on CNN. Rudi Bakhtiar jumped from CNN to Fox News in 2. She claimed she was sexually harassed by correspondent Brian Wilson and later spoke out against Fox News culture after the Ailes scandal broke. She now works at Reuters. Kiran Chetry was a Fox News host from 2. She was reportedly also an aspirant for a role on Fox Friends, the networks morning show. Libertarian commentator Jedediah Bila appeared on Foxs Outnumbered and later turned up on ABCs The View. Her lawsuit started it all Former Fox host Gretchen Carlson claims Ailes repeatedly sexually harassed her. Her suit was later settled for a reported 2. Megyn Kelly ended her 1. Fox News in early 2. NBC. She turned down a four year, 1. Fox News saying that one of the reasons for her departure was to spend more time with her kids. Kelly said she was among those at Fox News sexually harassed by Ailes. Happening Now anchor Jenna Lee announced that she was leaving the Fox News after working there for 1. Lee said she still loves being a journalist and that she has some really big ideas on how to better serve you in that particular arena without Fox News. Previous Slide. Next Slide. The Roger Ailes and Bill OReilly scandals have cast even some old departures in a new light. Fox News has enhanced the careers of numerous women who have served as hosts. All were hired by Roger Ailes, the former network boss who exited in August 2. This Is the i. Phone 8 You Should Buy. Its that time of year again, folks, but this time shits a little more complicated. Apple turned heads at the annual i. Phone lovefest by introducing not just one, not two, but three new i. Phonesone of which is a pricey monster weve addressed in another post. If youre thinking about placing an order for an i. Phone 8 on September 1. PT3am ET, however, weve got some tips. Should you get the beefy new i. Phone 8 Plus Should you spring for 2. GB of storage Should you finally switch to T Mobile and its litany of appealing offers You should do a lot of things in your life, including reading this blog post in full. It might just save you a few bucks. FOR MOST PEOPLEBuy the 2. GB space grey 4. 7 inch i. Phone 8 on Verizon. Why the little one Its the best size. Okay, for most people, its the best size. The i. Phone 8 Plus, like the i. Phone 7 Plus, will be fun for a select group of people who like holding pancakes in their hands and taking extra special photos with the dual camera system and paying a hundred bucks more for those privileges. But the 4. 7 inch screen on the i. Phone 8 is enough real estate for the average user. It fits better in your hand, your pocket, and your bag. Its a better deal. The camera proposition is an interesting one, however. When Apple introduced the i. Phone 7 Plus, the major difference between the big phones camera and the camera on the i. Phone 7 was the extra lens and the bokeh effect. This year, both cameras get bigger 1. Phone 8 Plus that you cant get on the i. Phone 8 is something called Portrait Lighting. This lets you adjust the lighting while the dual lens camera is in Portrait Mode. It looks cool, but its also a parlor trick that you can only use in specific circumstances. In conclusion, the i. Phone 8 camera is fantastic enough for most people. Why 2. 56. GB The question here is really, Why not 2. GB Apple doubled the maximum amount of storage for the new model, from 1. GB in the i. Phone 7 to 2. GB in the i. Phone 8. Dollar for dollar, storage has never been cheaper in an i. Phone, so you can rest easy knowing that. Meanwhile, the only other option for an i. Phone 8 is 6. 4GB. Thats a lot of storage, but the improved camera means youll be taking more photos and videos that take up more space. You might fill up your 6. GB and regret not getting more storage. You likely wont regret spending an extra hundred dollars for the 2. GB and never thinking about storage again. Why Verizon In years past, the choice of carrier has been an easy one. Verizon has always had the best, biggest, and most most dependable cellular network. Its LTE offerings have always been supreme. Customer service, less so. But in the past year or so, T Mobile has made impressive progress in challenging Verizons place at the top of the totem pole. The crowdsourced data from Open. Signal actually has T Mobile beating Verizon in many categories for the first time ever. But were talking about whats best for most people. According to the folks at Wirecutter and several other independent ranking services, Verizon is still the better choice for the majority of the country. The difference in performance is most impactful when looking at urban versus rural areas. While T Mobile continues to improve in cities, it still lags behind Verizon in the sticks. Obviously, you can see for yourself which carrier works best for you, but think about it this way if you buy the Verizon i. Phone GSM and CDMA, you can easily switch to T Mobile at a later date. If you buy the T Mobile i. Phone GSM only, you cant. Why black Better resale value, full stop. FOR THOSE WHO ARGUE WITH OUR SINGLE RECOMMENDATIONYou should wait for the i. Phone X. This one cuts deep. Who knows why Apple decided to release one new i. Phone in September and another in November, but it happened. Some super fans will undoubtedly buy an i. Phone 8, only to upgrade to an i. Phone X when it starts shipping on November 3. If you want to be that person, God bless you. If youre willing to wait, you might consider skipping the i. Phone 8 altogether and spending a cool grand on the i. Phone X. Aside from the hip factor of the anniversary phone, the i. Phone X offers the biggest screen of all the new i. Phones, new facial recognition features, and an even better camera. Its more expensive, and youll have to wait longer. However, if youre looking for the biggest upgrade from your current i. Phone, the i. Phone X is it. You should buy an i. Phone 8 Plus, if you love a big screen. Dont buy an i. Phone 8 Plus for the camera alone. The bokeh effect in Portrait Mode is cool and the new Portrait Lighting seems neat. You can do accomplish these results in free photo editing apps and desktop software, however. Heres an app for 1 that will simulate the bokeh effect. Here are a buttload of apps that let you tinker with lighting and colors. The new and improved i. Phone 8 camera will take great photos, and you can improve them for much less than the extra 1. Phone 8 Plus. You cant make the i. Phone 8 screen bigger once you buy it, however. So if youre going for the i. Phone 8 Plus, do it for the screennot the camera. You should buy Apple. Care. Are you clumsy Then spring for Apple. Care. For an i. Phone 8, it will cost you 1. That doubles your one year warranty for manufacturer defects and gets you lower prices on repairs. If you completely destroy your device, a replacement will cost an additional 1. If you crack the screen, that repair will cost just 3. So if youre one of those people who tends to walk around with a screen that looks like abstract art, pay for Apple. Care when you buy the phone. A third party screen replacement alone could cost the 1. Apples insurance program. You should use the Apple Upgrade Program. Do you need financing for your new i. Phone And do you also want Apple. Care If yes, the Apple Upgrade Program is a no brainer. For an i. Phone 8, it will cost you 3. APR. The program also covers the cost of activation on AT T, Verizon, or Sprint. And the Apple Upgrade Program lets you trade in your phone for the new model after a year. This is not a trick. The Apple Upgrade Program just splits up the cost of the phone over the course of two years and gives you that upgrade benefit. If you can pay cash, by all means burn that paper. But you might as well use the Apple Upgrade Program if you, well, if you want an upgrade in a year. You should switch to T Mobile. T Mobile is the carrier that could. Its the little guy thats been screaming and screaming for the public to pay attention to it for years, and now, against all odds, T Mobile is actually a pretty good alternative to Verizon or AT T. T Mobiles coverage has never been better, and its speeds have never been faster. As mentioned above, Open. Signal now recommends T Mobile over Verizon, the longtime favorite. Plus, if you sign up for T Mobile, youll get all those uncarrier benefits like unlimited data and free wi fi hotspots. If all that sounds awesome, go for T Mobile. Be aware, however, that T Mobile still suffers in rural areas and that many of those uncarrier benefits are things are things youd never use. Some of those benefits, like the new Netflix on Us perk, are also misleading. City dwellers and penny pinchers will probably love T Mobile, though. You might too. You should buy the 6. GB i. Phone 8. Are you a cloud fanatic, someone who uses apps like Dropbox or Google Photos to avoid storing data on your devicesThen the 6. GB i. Phone 8 might be enough for your. Heres a quick little test. Do you currently own a phone with 3. GB or less Do you have more than 1. GB of space remaining Do you always have more than 1. GB of free space on your phoneIf you answered yes to all of these questions, the 6. GB i. Phone is probably enough storage space for you. Save the hundred bucks and have fun trusting the cloud. You should buy the new gold gold i. Phone 8. Express yourself, my friend.