Harveys Assures Customers Their Personal Files Are Private

Current.com.au:

Harvey Norman has responded to privacy concerns stemming from the conviction of a Perth police officer on child pornography charges. These charges were laid after employees at a Harvey Norman store found illegal images whilst servicing a computer brought in for repair.

The highlighting of Harvey Norman in this story raises concerns that employees trawl through personal data when servicing computers. This could include photos, media files and word documents.

Harvey Norman executive director John Slacksmith said today that employees servicing personal computers would only look through personal files if they were linked to the problem.

“If the consumer came into the store, and there was a fault they were having with the computer, and that fault may have been that there was a document or a photo or file that wouldn’t open up and they gave specific incidents of when they’ve tried and failed to open or modify that file, then of course the technician is going to go through and try to rectify that fault.

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