Discussion on:

Texas Law requires computer repair techs to be Private Investigators

The law, in a nutshell, is intended to cover people who retrieve and analyze data that is to be subsequently used in an investigation or litigation.

The class-action lawsuit on behalf of computer technicians across the Lone Star state was filed by the fledgling advocacy group, the Institute for Justice Texas Chapter.

The Bill:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HB02833F.htm

(Good luck understanding it. Do a find for the word computer to narrow your read.)

The author of the bill, Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, called the lawsuit a publicity stunt to call attention to the group. I'd go a step further. I'd also bet a dollar to dirt that there's some other provision in Texas law that pays the fees of class-action lawyers who file class-action suits against the state.

Lawyers, laws and government - they keep making more and more problems for everybody, but people insist on having more and more of the same.

[sarcasm] I think there should be a law that demands half of all the existing laws be repealed, and that no new laws could be enacted until that time. It would be up to each state legislative body (and the federal one as well) to spend the next several legislative sessions bickering over which ones to repeal! That might get even me to watch C-Span! [/sarcasm]

On second thought, maybe it wasn't so sarcastic!

Any guesses on how the courts will award the attorney fees?

http://www.weblocator.com/attorney/tx/law/b14.html#txb141200

Judges and lawyers - one in the same?

I'll give 10-1 (on any wager up to $10) that these lawyers will make out quite nicely. Any takers?

Edited: I'd hate to potentially lose $1,000, so I changed my wager limit from $100 to $10.

I don't know if a class action lawsuit is the best way to address this poorly written law or not. But the fact is that all Driver would reiterate is that it didn't apply to people who work with HARDWARE. My experience is that if you work with hardware, inevitably you work with software.

Any one of us could find ourselves in a position where we are dealing with a person's data that may be used in a court. I recall having to go through a person's computer to try to find files I could dump to make room for an application. This was a corporate computer and I was acting under my supervisor's direction. I found a heavy weight file of porn that I was instructed to delete. I was then told to leave a copy of the Corporate Use Agreement on the guy's chair. I know that they started watching him much more closely after that.

I think that there is good rationale to go back to this law and clarify it's intent. I know if I worked in Texas, I would not be comfortable working as a Support Tech.


Edit- Firefox went batty on me.

Max,

Are lawyers not just another part of the free enterprise system?

Even lobbyists are part of the exercise of free speech and free enterprise.

How are lawyers any different from the oil companies, the superstar CEOs, or the Walmarts of the world?

Are you suggesting that if you do not approve of the outcome of someones exercise of free enterprise that their activities should be limited and restricted?

As to taking laws off the books, that would be quite easy at least for the first few passes. There are many laws that are functionally obsolete. It would take a good law clerk but a few hours to round up 100 or more laws that could be repealed in a simple up or down vote.

Chas

I'm saying that this story should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, considering what got it started. There's absolutely no way the average computer tech would possibly be seen as violating this law. It's no more than opportunist class-action lawyers looking to make a name for themselves and some dollars for their bank accounts.

That's what I'm saying - no more, no less. At least, that's my opinion.

On the laws comment, it was in reference to poorly written laws. There are simply too many laws, ones poorly written or otherwise - more than just those that are functionally obsolete.

Edit:

To make my point, I'm sure you're familiar with that old saying, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Well, considering the number and complexity of all laws on all levels, ignorance should be an excuse, since there are SO MANY of them. The only way not to be ignorant is to be a lawyer - and even then, one couldn't possibly know all of them.

Another edit:

Should ignorance of the law, in some cases, be a valid excuse?

Yet another edit:

And there are plenty of class action laws that are either poorly written and/or should be repealed.

Okay, one more edit:

Although many aspects of the legal system are, and should be, driven by the free market system, I consider it outside the realm of free markets in totality. I don't think anyone should be forced to pay for justice or freedom. (I'm sure you'll find things about that comment to throw back at me.) Our legal system is so screwed up, too large, and too expensive - and it's a guaranteed freedom as defined in our Bill of Rights. That's just not right.

I think the intent is that anybody who does forensic data analysis must be a private investigator. But that second paragraph reads like a tech can be nailed if he tells Mom and Dad that yes, little Johnny has been visiting porn sites.

A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this 
chapter if the person:
		(1) engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, 
or accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information related to:
			(B) the identity, habits, business, occupation, 
knowledge, efficiency, loyalty, movement, location, affiliations, 
associations, transactions, acts, reputation, or character of a person;

Edit: formatting

OK, what does that statement mean?

Data on a PC is either a magnetic domain on a disk, or a charge on a capacitor in a RAM chip. As far as I know, one cannot actually "come into contact" with either of these things.

Unless you're opening up drives, removing the platters and rubbing them against yourself, you aren't in contact with the data on a disk.

If you attempted to come into contact with data held in RAM, it's going to be gone before you get your skin anywhere near it.

Regards

It sounds to me like some person with political connections got caught with porn on his computer when he took it in for repair. It might even be a desire to keep company or even government IT staff from searching users computers. You could interpret this law as extending personal privacy into company owned computers and corporate databases.

Looking at this from a positive aspect, it does make sense to require someone collecting data from a computer, hard drive, or database for use as evidence to have training in the proper collection of evidence.

What the computer repair industry needs though is a shield law that protects repair techs should they find and report questionable material on a computer they are repairing.

Chas

The Texas Department of Public Safety's Private Security Bureau website was just updated, at http://www.txdps. state.tx. us/psb/AgendaIte mXIV.pdf, to clarify that only computer repair technicians who are seeking computer data to use as evidence in a criminal or civil hearing must be licensed by the Bureau under the Texas Private Security Act (Chapter 1702, Texas Occupations Code). The update is entitled "Minutes of July 23, 2008 Private Security Board Meeting, Agenda Item XIV, Regarding Computer Repair Technicians."



The portion of the 23 July Private Security Board minutes that are now considered policy of the Private Security Bureau when enforcing the forensic computer repair issue is as follows:

"(a) Information obtained through the review and analysis of the content of computer-based data with the intent to use such data a evidence in a criminal or civil hearing must be obtained and furnished by an investigations company license under the Act or by an individual exempted from licensure under ??1702.323 (a) of the Act. (b) The repair or maintenance of a computer does not require licensing under the Act, even if during the course of the repair or maintenance the person discovers information described by ??1702.104 (a) (1)."



The Texas Occupations Code can be found online at http://tlo2. tlc.state. tx.us/statutes/ oc.toc.htm.

Deflate all the fun with droll fact?

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