Man sues Microsoft for privacy, reaches settlement with Hewlett-Packard
What do you do when the FBI raids your home, seizes your home computer and finds sexually explicit videos of you and your partner and evidence of your frequented pornographic websites all over your PC? Michael Alan Crooker, who had his home computer seized by the bureau, has decided that his best course of action is to sue the companies that failed to keep his data private for him. Here is what happened.
In 2004, Crooker had his home raided by agents based on reports that he owned bomb-making materials. During the raid laboratory devices, apparent IEDs, fermenting castor beans, chemicals and chemical equipment appropriate for the processing of castor beans into were found. Agents eventually confirmed that what he was really into was manufacturing ricin. Unsurprisingly, the FBI confiscated his home PC as part of the process.
Unable to crack the PC’s security features, the agents sent it to the FBI’s Cryptologic and Electronic Analysis unit and were able to break through the Compaq DriveLock security layer with help from Hewlett-Packard.
Among the files, they found a video showing Crooker and his girlfriend having sex, his medical records, family photographs, and correspondence between Crooker and his attorneys. They also found Internet history files that showed Crooker’s fondness for pornographic Web sites.
In court papers filed this week in Massachusetts Superior Court, Crooker says he “suffered great embarrassment” as a result of Microsoft’s failure to keep the FBI’s prying eyes off his computer.
He is suing the software maker for $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
Crooker, says security features advertised by Microsoft and its business partners should have kept federal agents from accessing the files on his PC. He added that he had set Internet Explorer to delete his Internet history every five days. “Any day beyond those parameters is supposed to be permanently deleted and is not supposed to be recoverable,” Crooker says in the lawsuit. He also claims Compaq’s DriveLock security system should have prevented the FBI from accessing his hard drive.
In the court papers, Crooker says he already has reached settlement with Hewlett-Packard, which owns the Compaq brand.
This story brings me to question the wisdom of Crooker about his expectation of PC security. Do you think he allocated enough resources to secure his PC? If you want to secure your precious data from prying eyes would you buy a new PC with McAfee or Norton security suite and let it go at that?
Isn’t this a story of someone not taking responsibility for their own actions? Worst, he figures a way to gain financially from his own irresponsibility.
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March 4th, 2007
Most people don’t realize that there is a index.dat file that holds your visited sites forever when using Internet Explorer. The process for deleteing this index.dat file has to be done in a special way. I’m not going to explain the process. Google for it.
One freeware software to see the list of sites visted is Super Winspy
It is at http://www.acesoft.net/download.htm
The FBI would ahe been able to use a simple freeware software like this and it makes no difference if you have told IE to get rid of your History of sites visited.
The index.dat is Microsoft helping be “Big Brother” for the FBI
March 5th, 2007
You mislead the comment.
You buy i car that advertise security, if the manufater car put cheap tires that dont be secure in real life, you get money, it happend before.
So if they advertise one think and fail to deliver, you should be compesated.
You may think all the pc consumers are expert in pc, you wrong.
You may think all the consumers of any product are expert of the product they are buying, you live out of reality.
March 11th, 2007
Whether Mr. Crooker took enough security measures is not the point. The FBI should not be sticking their noses into peoples personal information & HP should not have helped them. I’m glad he sued & won.
December 4th, 2011
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