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Best Buy Geek Squad Agents ‘Going Sleeper’ After Mass Layoffs (www.404media.co)

submitted 7 months ago by ylai@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] SquirtleHermit@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It is interesting that in this economy which is intentionally managed to create a shortage of jobs and to lower wages, that employees are expected to betray the public trust and even engage in illegal activity at the behest of their employers just to stay employed, and that some of us might find this as an acceptable state of affairs. And yes, when business goes sour for the company, those employees will be discarded with no additional acknowledgment for their loyalty.

I fully agree with the point you are making here. It's a fucked up system with a whole mess of badly designed incentives that cause people to be shitty to each other.

My only disagreement is with your willingness to condemn innocent people who lost their jobs over the actions of a few. I worked for GeekSquad, data privacy violations were not only a fireable offense but also something those I worked with prided themselves on protecting. All of my coworkers were privacy advocates and enthusiasts who did not go digging through anyone's personal data. Rather, oftentimes they would try to help clients be more informed, even risking their own job stability when doing so lost sales.

There are good folks who didn't deserve to lose their jobs, were not guilty of the actions you are upset over, and don't deserve people callously implying they deserved it.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 7 months ago

I worked for GeekSquad, data privacy violations were not only a fireable offense but also something those I worked with prided themselves on protecting.

This is news to me, and it's commendable regardless of whether it's standard policy for Geek Squad, or just specific to your Best Buy location. At any rate it's good to know the conversation was had within the office.

FBI has been pursuing its mission in bad faith for decades now. Longer than when James Comey was in office. In 2002 it changed from law enforcement to national security as much for the budget increase, and its methods, whether in curbing CSAM distribution or in pursuing Islamist terrorists, were less about making the nation safer for the public and more about fabricating credit for the agency. But then it was just as reprehensible in the J. Edgar Hoover years, and it's only because of serial killer fiction that I might have imagined better.

At least since the 1990s, law enforcement across the nation has lost its impartiality. I can't say they protected and served much in the 1980s or before, but they certainly have not since the aughts. Being involved with them, such as working as an informant, is just as problematic as being involved with the mob. Possibly more so in the 2020s.