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No Privacy in the Electronics Repair Industry*
Jason Ceci, Jonah Stegman, Hassan Khan
University of Guelph
{jceci, jstegman, hassan.khan}@uoguelph.ca
Abstract—Electronics repair and service providers offer a
range of services to computing device owners across North
America—from software installation to hardware repair. De-
vice owners obtain these services and leave their device along
with their access credentials at the mercy of technicians,
which leads to privacy concerns for owners’ personal data. We
conduct a comprehensive four-part study to measure the state
of privacy in the electronics repair industry. First, through a
field study with 18 service providers, we uncover that most
service providers do not have any privacy policy or controls
to safeguard device owners’ personal data from snooping by
technicians. Second, we drop rigged devices for repair at
16 service providers and collect data on widespread privacy
violations by technicians, including snooping on personal data,
copying data off the device, and removing tracks of snooping
activities. Third, we conduct an online survey (n=112) to collect
data on customers’ experiences when getting devices repaired.
Fourth, we invite a subset of survey respondents (n=30) for
semi-structured interviews to establish a deeper understanding
of their experiences and identify potential solutions to curtail
privacy violations by technicians. We apply our findings to
discuss possible controls and actions different stakeholders and
regulatory agencies should take to improve the state of privacy
in the repair industry.
1. Introduction
The annual global electronics repair and service industry
is valued at over $19B [20]. Repair services are offered
by a range of service providers—from mom-and-pop shops
to big-box stores—to millions of users. Geek Squad (the
technology repairs and service subsidiary of Best Buy) alone
serves 4.5 million customers a year [49]. The types of
services offered by these providers include software installa-
tion and troubleshooting, routine maintenance (e.g., software
updates), data recovery, and hardware repair or upgrades.
Customers use these services for a variety of computing
devices, including personal computers and smartphones.
Service or repair of a computing device often requires
(administrative) access to the device’s operating system for
installation, diagnostics, or validation. During the repair,
technicians have complete access to the device and may
access device owners’ personal data. This privacy violation
may occur accidentally (e.g., when verifying successful
. *Accepted at IEEE S&P 2023
recovery of a document), intentionally (e.g., snooping due to
curiosity), or at the behest of law enforcement [30]. Several
cases of such privacy violations have been made public
through litigation and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests. Electronic Frontier Foundation has uncovered that
Geek Squad employees have been invading device owners’
privacy at the behest of the FBI, potentially circumventing
device owners’ Fourth Amendment rights [30]. In addition,
individuals have reported the theft of their nude pictures by
Apple store [48] and Geek Squad [37] technicians. In one
instance, employees at a smartphone repair service stole and
distributed nude images for over seven years [51].
While it has been over a decade since the first inci-
dent was publicly reported [37], policies and controls to
safeguard customers’ data are still inadequate. Geek Squad
provides a privacy policy for device repairs in the US on
their website, which states, “[O]ur Geek Squad Agents are
trained to never access data on a customer’s device provided
to Geek Squad for service except in limited circumstances,
and only to the extent necessary to perform the service,
such when you ask us to recover your data” [5]. However,
no information is available on the controls employed to
implement this policy. Similarly, after an incident in 2016
at an Apple Store, Apple said in a statement: “When we
learned of this egregious violation of our policies at one
of our vendors in 2016, we took immediate action and have
since continued to strengthen our vendor protocols”, only for
another incident to be reported in 2019 [4]. If technicians get
caught snooping, they are terminated from their jobs [48]
and possibly face legal proceedings [51]. However, these
reactionary measures fail to treat the underlying problem.
The electronics repair industry provides economic and
environmental benefits. However, there is a dire need to
measure the current privacy practices in the industry, under-
stand customers’ perspectives, and build effective controls
that protect customers’ privacy. To this end, we conduct
a carefully designed four-part study, which involves both
stakeholders—electronic repair service providers (“service
providers”) and customers. The first two parts of the study
focus on the service providers for which we target big-
box stores, regional chains, and local mom-and-pop stores
across three cities in Canada. In the first part, researchers
dropped devices for a battery replacement service (a service
that does not require access to the device OS) to measure
the availability and communication of privacy policy and
requests for device access credentials. During the second
part, we rigged devices to log all the actions performed by
1
arXiv:2211.05824v1 [cs.CR] 10 Nov 2022
the user. These devices were then dropped off with their
audio driver disabled to get the audio issue fixed. After
repairs were completed, the logs were analyzed to note the
type of privacy violations perpetrated by the technicians. The
third part was an online survey (n=112), which collected
users’ perceptions and experiences around device repairs.
In the final part, a subset of interview participants (n=30)
was invited to develop deeper insights into their experiences
and to explore possible ways to improve customers’ privacy
when their devices are being repaired.
To the best of our knowledge, our work provides
the first-ever holistic view of customers’ privacy in the
electronics repair industry. Our key findings include:
•Privacy policies and the practice of communicating
protocols and controls to protect customers’ data do
not exist across service providers of all sizes.
•Service providers largely (10/11) require “all-
access” to the device, even when it is not needed.
•Technicians often snoop on customers’ data (6/16)
and sometimes copy those to external devices (2/16).
•Technicians who violate privacy often do so care-
fully not to generate evidence (1/6) or remove such
evidence (3/6).
•A significant proportion of broken devices (26/79
(33%)) are not repaired due to privacy concerns.
For the devices that get repaired, device owners are
concerned about threats to their privacy but do not
use the proper controls to protect their data.
We outline policy improvements, possible controls, and
the actions and roles different stakeholders and regulatory
agencies need to play to improve the state of privacy in the
repair industry.
2. Related Work
Researchers have explored privacy concerns of device
owners when sharing their devices temporarily with acquain-
tances [19], [26], [33], [35] and when there is unauthorized
physical access to personal devices by acquaintances [32].
Existing security controls are available that enable secure
temporary device sharing (e.g., guest accounts [17]). How-
ever, these security controls are not designed to protect
from technicians, who often need administrative access to
the device. Researchers and regulatory authorities have un-
covered poor privacy practices at electronic retailers when
refurbishing used devices [8], [38]. While these retailers
may be providing repair services, the customer’s intent
is not to get the device repaired. Some researchers have
explored the knowledge and skills of technicians [21], [22]
and how the repair infrastructures are set up in low income
countries [23], [24]. However, these works do not explore
the customers’ privacy aspects.
While news articles abound on privacy violations (see
§1), the state of customers’ privacy in the repair industry
has not received a holistic academic treatment. The only
work on this subject is from Ahmed et al. [2], where the
authors’ goal was to “improve the practices surrounding
the repair of digital artifacts in developing countries.” The
authors conducted this study in Bangladesh. Through an
ethnographic study, a researcher interned at a smartphone
repair shop for three months to note the technician and
customer interactions. This was coupled with an online sur-
vey and semi-structured interview to understand customers’
privacy concerns. They found that technicians often snoop
and sell the personal data of customers. Furthermore, while
some customers reported their suspicions of possible privacy
violations, a lack of understanding around privacy and repair
was common among participants. Finally, they collected
feedback on an Android application, which flagged privacy
violations by logging which apps were used during repair.
Ahmed et al.’s investigation focuses on a low or middle
income country and privacy in the context of smartphones
repairs only. There are considerable differences between
high and low income countries when it comes to the use
of technology [41], [44], [53] and privacy expectations and
regulations [2], [31]. With the media coverage and subse-
quent promises from some service providers in the US [4],
[5], in addition to measuring customers’ perceptions, it is
important to understand the existence and communication
of policies and controls to protect customers’ privacy.
3. Study Design
We aim to investigate the following questions:
RQ1 Does the electronic repair industry have privacy
policies or procedures to safeguard customers’
data? If so, how are those policies or procedures
communicated to customers?
RQ2 Do repair service providers only request access to
resources that are needed?
RQ3 Do service technicians access customers’ data? If
so, how widespread is this issue, and what type of
violations are common?
RQ4 What are customers’ understanding of risks around
device repairs, and how does it influence their
device repair decisions and repair preparations?
RQ5 What solutions are viable to improve the state of
privacy in the electronics repair industry?
There are several challenges to our investigation. Service
providers are of various sizes and different service providers
may have different maturity levels and corporate oversight.
A holistic investigation should investigate these research
questions across different service providers. Moreover, cus-
tomers may need different types of repairs or services. Some
services may only need access to the device hardware, while
some services may require access to the device OS. The type
of access required may change for different device types for
the same service. To collect meaningful data, it is important
to carefully choose the appropriate device and service.
To find answers to these questions, we conducted a four-
part study. The first part of the study collected data on RQ1
and RQ2 by initiating repairs at various service providers.
Note that the first part required the investigator to ask the
technicians about the existence of privacy policies. This may
2
have influenced the technicians’ interaction with the device.
Therefore, to investigate RQ3, we collected data using a
separate study. For the second part, we had rigged de-
vices repaired that logged all the interactions of technicians
during the repair process. Next, we conducted an online
survey (n=112) for RQ4, which measured the respondents’
understanding of risk perceptions, how it influenced their
repair decision, safeguards they employed when getting the
device repaired, and any privacy violations they noticed for
the repair services that they requested. The findings were
enriched, and RQ5 was investigated through a follow-up
interview with a subset of survey participants (n=30). We
document the recruitment process, study procedure, and re-
sults separately for the four parts in their respective sections.
Controlling Confounding Factors. We used various
measures to control confounding factors. For different
parts of the study, an investigator never revisited the same
service provider. The investigators did not provide their
real names at the device drop-off in case the technicians
searched their names on the Internet to uncover that the
investigators were security researchers. We used different
devices for different branches of service providers and
different devices for different parts of the study to ensure
that a record of the device did not exist in the service
providers’ central database. Finally, the advertisement and
recruitment for the survey and interview strictly began after
the conclusion of the first two parts. This order ensured
that we did not influence the behaviour of the technicians
due to the knowledge of this study.
Choosing Repair Service Providers. The first two parts
of the study require interactions with the service provider.
We divided service providers into three categories. A “Na-
tional” service provider is a big-box store that is a subsidiary
of a publicly traded organization across North America. A
“Regional” service provider is a store of a larger chain that
has stores across more than two cities. A “Local” service
provider is a service provider local to the city, is operating at
a commercial location (i.e., not operating out of their home)
and has a business license. When choosing local service
providers, we only selected those service providers who had
a website and a Google Maps rating of 3.5 stars or higher.
Ethical Considerations. We received approval from our
institutional IRB for all four parts of the study. Part-3
and Part-4 required informed consent, PII anonymization,
and allowing participants to withdraw their data up to two
weeks after the study. Part-1 and Part-2 required covert
observations to study the policies and procedures of the
service providers, which are commercial entities. We did
not collect any personally identifiable information about
the technicians or representatives. To avoid influencing the
behaviour of the technicians, we did not obtain informed
consent, Part-1 required limited disclosure, and Part-2 re-
quired deception. We strictly adhered to the guidelines in
Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS-2) [7] for
covert observation studies where informed consent could
not be obtained. To this end, several necessary measures
were used to address privacy and confidentiality issues. To
protect the privacy of the repair technicians, we securely
deleted all data where the technician may have used the
device to view personal data (e.g., accessing a personal
website or personal file on an external drive). Second, all
location tracking and additional information collection in the
OS were disabled. After each experiment, only logs relating
to privacy violations and covering tracks (e.g. removing logs
or clearing “recent files”) were retrieved before reimaging
the device. Third, we anonymized the collected data and
only report the type of service provider (national, regional,
or local) without disclosing which of the three cities the
service provider belonged to.
We chose to not debrief the service providers for several
reasons (as permitted by TCPS-2). Previous incidents of
technicians’ misconduct have resulted in the technician los-
ing their job. Informing the service providers that they were
a part of this study, regardless of anonymization assurances,
may cause them to feel threatened and potentially retaliate.
Our experiment was designed to pose minimal risk to the
technician and their privacy. The technicians were paid for
their services and there is no expectation of privacy for the
repair actions taken on the experimenter’s device (we do not
disclose any repair procedures). Given the minimal risks
to technicians, a debrief provides little advantage. On the
contrary, disclosing the study to technicians who may have
committed privacy violations may lead to psychological and
social harms including feeling ashamed, a fear of social
stigma, and guilt. There are precedents [9], [14], [47] on
not debriefing participants in technology and social science
research for these reasons. For instance, Finn and Jakobsson
did not debrief participants of their phishing experiment
as “[The subjects] may feel upset, anxious, or angry that
they were fooled” [14]. Interested readers are referred to
the work by Roulet et al. [42] for a discussion on con-
sent and debriefing in covert participation experiments and
several precedents in the social sciences domain. While
unconventional, our experiment design enables us to conduct
legitimate privacy research in the public interest, which
was otherwise not possible and which has the potential to
improve the state of privacy, particularly for novice users
who often engage with these service providers.
4. Part-1: Privacy Policies and Protocols
The first part of the study was conducted from August
2021 to September 2021. The main objectives were to
measure: (1) the existence and communication of privacy
policies to safeguard customers’ data; and (2) what informa-
tion is collected for a repair procedure that does not require
access to the device OS.
4.1. Procedure
To study the privacy policies and protocols, we visited
eleven service providers—three national, three regional, and
five local service providers. We also report our findings for
two national smartphone repair service providers and for
five device manufacturers. We only visited one store for the
national and regional service providers as we expected the
3
existence and communication of policies to be the same
across different stores of the same service provider. For
the repair service, we chose battery replacement for Asus
UX330U laptops as its battery replacement only required
removal of the back of the device and the device BIOS
provided all the details about the battery health. Therefore, it
can be argued that the technicians did not need access to the
device OS for diagnosis, replacement, or verification of the
repair. Understandably, several repair or service procedures
do require access to the device OS, which leaves no option
for the customer but to provide their credentials. For such
repair procedures, our findings on the safeguards adopted
by the service providers are of relevance.
A script was prepared for the drop-off. The researcher
was required to look for any notice that outlined the privacy
policy and take a picture of it right before leaving. The re-
searcher was then required to explain the issue (“the battery
is dying and needs replacement”) and make a mental note
of the technician’s requests and questions. If the technician
asked for credentials, the researcher asked them why it
was needed and how customers’ data would be protected.
After providing the credential, the researcher noted how
it was stored. Finally, the researcher asked about any pri-
vacy policies and protocols to safeguard customers’ data
(“how do you make sure no one will access my personal
data?”). Within ten minutes after the drop-off, the researcher
completed a survey documenting their experience (see Ap-
pendix A).
4.2. Results
For qualitative analysis of technicians’ responses (e.g.,
response to “how customers’ data was protected”), we per-
formed thematic analysis to identify themes (see details on
thematic analysis in § 7.2). The quotes from the technician
were recalled by the researcher and are not verbatim.
Privacy Policies. None of the service providers posted any
notice informing customers about their privacy policies.
Similarly, until the devices were handed over, no researcher
was informed about a privacy policy, their rights as a cus-
tomer, or how to protect their data. After the devices were
handed over, only three national and three regional service
providers provided a terms and conditions document for the
customer’s signature. However, these terms and conditions
only communicated that the service provider was not liable
for the loss of the customer’s data and that the customer
was responsible for backing up their data. No document
listed any safeguards on how customers’ data was protected,
or the steps customers should take to safeguard their data
from snooping. All three national service providers provided
a link to their online privacy policy, which was a generic
policy on data collection and retention (i.e., not specific to
electronics repair services).
Access to Credentials. All but one repair service provider
asked for the credentials to the device OS—a regional
service provider was the only exception. When technicians
asked for the credentials, the researcher asked why it was
needed. All three national service providers needed the
credentials for repairs regardless of the service as it was
a part of the “paperwork” (“We need the password for
all repairs.” (National-1)). Technicians from one local and
two regional service providers said that they needed the
credentials to run diagnostics. Technicians from four local
service providers said that they needed it for the verification
of the performed service.
We asked the technicians if the device battery could
be replaced without providing the credentials. The three
national service providers could not take the device without
the credentials. Two regional and two local service providers
agreed to do it but informed the researcher that they would
not be able to verify their work and would not be responsible
for the quality of their work. Finally, one local service
provider asked the researcher to remove the password if
they did not want to share it, and one local service provider
told the researcher that if the password was not provided,
they would reset the device if required.
Storage of Access Credentials. Users widely reuse their
credentials [12]. It is possible that the password shared
with the technicians is reused elsewhere [27]. For the repair
service, the customer has to provide the password along
with their name, contact number, and email address. After
providing this information to the technicians, the researcher
noted how this information was stored. All three national
service providers stored this electronically in a database. No
information was shared with the customer on who will have
access to this information or how long it will be stored. The
three regional service providers stored this information in an
electronic database too. Furthermore, two of these service
providers printed a label with the customer’s name, contact
number, and password. This label was pasted on the device
and its charger, which was accessible to all staff members.
Finally, for the local service providers, 3/5 put a sticky note
with the password on the device itself and 2/5 stored this
information in an electronic database.
Protection of Personal Data. The researcher asked the
technician if anyone would access the personal data on
the device during the repair. All ten service providers who
obtained credentials responded that the personal data would
not be accessed, and only the technician working on the
problem would access the device. We asked the technicians
how they ensure no one would access data on the device.
Their responses conveyed no indication of a protocol or
control to protect access to customers’ data. Their responses
were codified and the inter-rater agreement between the two
researchers was moderate (Fleiss’s κ= 0.48). 6/10 service
providers (including two national service providers) “reas-
sured” the researcher. Their responses were similar to: “The
technicians only do the repair and nothing else.” (National-
1). The response from 4/10 repair service providers was
unsatisfactory or a deflection. Two representative responses
are provided below:
“It will be sent to a technician elsewhere.” (Regional-1)
“It is an honour system. We wouldn’t be in business if
we were doing that.” (Local-4)
Smartphone Repairs and Device Manufacturers. Most
service providers that we investigated for this part of the
4
study repaired both smartphones and computers. We also ap-
proached two regional smartphone repair service providers
(who only repaired smartphones) to replace the battery of a
Samsung S8 smartphone. Similar to our findings for laptops,
the researchers found no notice or communication on the
privacy policy and how their data will be protected. One
service provider requested the credentials, and the other
did not. When the service provider was asked why the
credentials were needed, they informed the researcher that
it was needed to run the “Samsung Diagnostic utility.”
When asked how this data would be protected, the service
provider reassured the researcher that no one would look at
customers’ personal data. An interesting aspect to note is
that the terms of service of this regional service provider
contradicted their reassurance:
“[Redacted name] will not treat data on your device as
confidential and disclaims any agreement with you or
other obligation to do so.” (Regional-4)
We also contacted six laptop manufacturers and re-
quested a repair for their brand of devices. One manufacturer
had outsourced repairs to two national service providers,
so we exclude it from the following results. The mail-in
instructions that the manufacturers provided were studied
to see their policies on safeguarding customers’ data and
collection of credentials. All device manufacturers stated
that they had the right to delete all data on the device.
4/5 manufacturers suggested that the user should back up
their device prior to mailing. All generic mail-in instructions
required credentials and contained warnings to the effect of:
“Failure to provide your username and password may
delay or prevent us from completing your repair. You
may also remove the system password prior to shipping
the unit instead of providing it above.” (Manufacturer-2)
Such statements from the manufacturers leave little room
for those customers whose device repair could be completed
without access to the device OS. Finally, none of the mail-in
instructions listed any mechanisms that customers could use
to safeguard their sensitive data before sending the device.
5. Part-2: Privacy Violations During Repair
The second part of the study was conducted from Oc-
tober 2021 to December 2021. The purpose of the second
part was to collect data on privacy violations during repairs.
There are several factors that influence this data collection
that are not controllable. First, a technician with the intent to
snoop may not get the opportunity to do so due to the pres-
ence of other individuals around them or deadlines. Second,
only select technicians may be involved in snooping, and
they may not get the device dropped off by the researcher
for the repair service. Consequently, to concretely establish
that privacy is “regularly” violated at a service provider,
we need to collect a large number of samples. Since this
requirement has obvious logistical issues, we only present
our results for a limited number of device repairs.
5.1. Methodology
We bought new laptops with Microsoft Windows 10
and disabled the audio driver on these laptops. We chose
the audio issue as: (1) it was a simple and cheap repair;
(2) it did not require access to users’ files (unlike software
installation or Virus removal); and (3) the problem was easy
to create (i.e., disabling the driver). A total of six devices
were used in this experiment. Three devices were configured
with a male persona, and three were configured with a
female persona. We set up email and gaming accounts,
and populated browser history across several weeks. We
added documents, pictures from the experimenters, and a
cryptocurrency wallet with credentials.
We also added female-coded revealing pictures. Female-
coded pictures were used as most of the recently reported
privacy violations were committed against females [37],
[48], [51]. Furthermore, researchers have shown that female
and non-binary individuals are more likely to face issues
from non-consensual image sharing, like a technician ac-
cessing devices [15], [28]. We reached out to verified Reddit
posters on the “r/GoneMild/” subreddit, where posters post
revealing pictures without any nudity. Other researchers
[34], [46], [52] have previously used and published pictures
from the “r/GoneWild/” subreddit and discussed the best
practices to ensure posters’ anonymity [52]. We followed
these practices and shortlisted those posters who were veri-
fied, and whose posts did not contain their face, identifying
features (tattoos, backgrounds), or any watermarks. Two out
of seven posters responded to our message and gave us per-
mission to use their photos “for research with the possibility
that their photos could be viewed or copied by a computer
technician operating in Ontario, Canada”. The names and
metadata of the images were scrubbed before use.
We appropriately tweaked the content to reflect the male
or female personas. After preparing the devices, they were
imaged, and these images were deployed before each drop-
off. We developed a logging utility which is a wrapper
on the Windows Problem Steps Recorder [36]. Windows
Problem Steps Recorder can execute in the background
(through CLI) and captures the screen on every mouse click.
It also records the keys pressed by the user. Our logging
utility executed in the background as a Windows process
and logged all interactions (referred to as “interaction logs”)
of the technicians. In addition, we enabled Windows Audit
Policy to log access to any file on the device.
We targeted two national, two regional, and eight local
service providers. We considered two branches for each
national and regional service provider. The repair requests
were gender-balanced.
5.2. Results
The devices were collected after repair, and the audit and
interaction logs were copied to an external storage device for
analysis. Except for two service providers, every provider
kept the device overnight. (All national service providers
kept the device for at least two days.) Two service providers
5
TABLE 1. RECORDED PRIVACY VIOLATIONS. EAC H SYMBOL
REP RES EN TS VI OLAT ION S IN A UNIQUE EX PER IM EN T. (F=FEM AL E;
M=MAL E)
National Regional Local
Fx2 Mx2 Fx2 Mx2 Fx4 Mx4
Privacy Violation
Accessed Documents Folder †‡
Accessed any Picture Folder ∗ †‡
Accessed Revealing Pictures ∗ †‡
Accessed Finance Folder †
Accessed Browsing History
Copied Customers’ Data †
Covering Tracks
Cleared “Quick Access” †‡
Cleared Logs •
(one regional and one local) asked the experimenters to wait
briefly and diagnosed and fixed the issue in front of the
experimenters. We were unable to extract logs for two local
service providers (one male and one female experimenter).
While we could not find a plausible reason for one of them,
the other told us that they installed antivirus software and
disk cleanup to “remove multiple viruses on the device.”
(The devices were new, re-imaged between drop-offs and
were not infected.) Therefore, snooping detection was only
possible for four national, three regional, and five local
service providers.
5.2.1. Privacy Violations. For our analysis, we categorized
privacy violations into six categories: accessing users’ data
folder (containing documents), any of the picture folders,
revealing pictures, finance folder, browsing history, and
copying users’ personal data to an external storage device.
We note that other types of violations are possible, but
we only report observed violations. Table 1shows privacy
violations for the two types of experimenters. We only noted
one violation from one national service provider against
a female experimenter. The folders that contained pictures
and revealing pictures were accessed. For regional service
providers, we noted one violation each against male and fe-
male experimenters. The documents, pictures, and revealing
pictures were accessed for both experimenters. The browser
history of the male experimenter was also viewed by the
technician, and the revealing pictures were zipped and trans-
ferred to an external storage device. For the local service
providers, we only note one violation against the male exper-
imenter (browser history was accessed) and two violations
against the female experimenter. The technician at one local
service provider accessed documents, pictures, and revealing
pictures. The technician at the other local service provider
committed all violations except viewing the browsing his-
tory. The technician also copied a password-containing file
and the revealing pictures to an external device.
5.2.2. Covering Tracks. Our logs show that after privacy
violations, some service providers cleared their tracks by
clearing items in the “Quick Access” or “Recently Accessed
Files” on Microsoft Windows. This behaviour was observed
for three service providers (one regional against the male
experimenter and two local service providers against the
female experimenter). Table 1shows that a national service
provider and a regional service provider committed privacy
violations but did not cover their tracks. The interaction logs
show that when viewing pictures, the technicians zoomed in
on thumbnails. Consequently, these violations never left a
trace (i.e., appeared in the list of recently accessed files).
6. Part-3: Online Survey
The primary objective of the online survey was to un-
derstand the electronics repair industry from the customer’s
lens. We collected data on any repairs that customers got
done in the past five years for two categories of devices: 1)
smartphones or tablets; and 2) laptops or desktop comput-
ers. These two categories were chosen as these categories
contain large amounts of users’ personal data (during the
interview, we investigated repairs for other device types
too). If respondents got devices repaired for both categories,
we collected responses for both categories. We limited re-
sponses to the past five years for a more accurate recall.
Where applicable, we solicited feedback on the most recent
repair. The survey was piloted with four participants, and
their feedback was used to revise the survey.
6.1. Recruitment and Procedure
We recruited respondents for a 10-minute online sur-
vey by placing advertisements on Kijiji and Facebook, and
through word-of-mouth. We used Qualtrics for the survey
(provided in Appendix B). The survey collected data from
respondents for the following data categories: (1) demo-
graphics and background; (2) devices needing repairs and
the reasons for not getting repairs; (3) who repaired the
device and what protocol was followed for repair services;
and (4) safeguards employed by the respondents and the
service providers to protect their personal data. At the end
of the survey, respondents were asked if they wished to
be contacted for a follow-up interview. Respondents were
compensated $5 for their participation.
6.2. Results
For test statistics, we use Pearson’s Chi-Squared test to
compare categorical data and Kruskal-Wallis one-way anal-
ysis of variance to compare Likert scale responses between
respondents (e.g., their technology proficiency levels).
6.2.1. Demographics and Background. The survey was
completed by 112 respondents (26 incomplete responses
were filtered). We did not allow multiple submissions from
the same device and excluded responses that had failed
the CAPTCHA challenge. Respondents were asked to pro-
vide their age, gender, and level of proficiency in technol-
ogy. 44% (49/112) of respondents were female, and 54%
(60/112) were male. In terms of their age, 29% (33/112)
reported between 18–25 years, 27% (30/112) between 26–
30 years, 19% (21/112) between 31–35 years, 12% (13/112)
6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Respondents (n=112)
Always
Sometimes
Never
Never Broke
Device Category
g Laptops/Desktops g Smartphones/Tablets
Figure 1. Responses to “In the last five years, when a personal device broke
or required service, how often did you get it repaired or serviced?”
between 36–40 years, 4% (5/112) between 41–45 years, 3%
(3/112) between 46–50 years, and 6% (7/112) over 50 years
old. While 56% (63/112) of respondents are 30 years of
age or younger, we have a good representation of other age
groups. Fewer respondents self-reported a basic proficiency
in technology (16% (18/112)) compared to those who self-
reported as intermediate (64% (72/112)) or advanced (20%
(22/112)). Given that the study was advertised and con-
ducted online, this smaller proportion is somewhat expected.
6.2.2. Broken Devices. First, we established how many
devices for each category broke down and if the bro-
ken devices were repaired (both commercially or non-
commercially) in the past five years (see Figure 1). For the
smartphones and tablets category, 12% (13/112) of respon-
dents reported no broken devices, 17% (19/112) reported
never getting repairs with at least one device requiring
repair, 54% (60/112) reported getting devices repaired some-
times, and 18% (20/112) reported always getting broken
devices repaired. For the laptops and desktops category,
15% (17/112) respondents reported no broken devices, 21%
(24/112) reported never getting repairs with at least one
device requiring repair, 41% (46/112) reported getting de-
vices repaired sometimes, and 22% (25/112) reported always
getting broken devices repaired.
For respondents who chose not to get at least one
device repaired, we asked all possible factors that influenced
their decision not to get the device repaired. For 79 cases
where broken smartphones/tablets were not repaired, the
cost was reported as a factor for 58% (46/79) cases, the
hassle was a factor for 46% (36/79) cases, the device was
not repairable for 33% (26/79) cases, and privacy was a
factor for 33% (26/79) cases. For one broken device, the
owner chose “other” as their response and stated that they
were getting a new device anyway. For 70 cases where
broken laptops/desktops were not repaired, the cost was
reported as a factor for 57% (40/70) cases, the hassle was a
factor for 34% (24/70) cases, the device was not repairable
for 27% (19/70) cases, and privacy was a factor for 33%
(23/70) cases. In one case, the device owner chose “other” as
their response, and their reason was their inability to find a
suitable service provider. In § 7, we investigate why privacy
was not cited as a more important factor.
We asked respondents if they got their devices re-
paired by a commercial service provider. 56% (63/112)
and 46% (52/112) reported getting a device repaired by
a commercial service provider for smartphones/tablets and
laptops/desktops categories, respectively. A total of 86 re-
spondents reported getting one or more devices repaired at a
commercial service provider. In terms of where these repairs
were performed, 37% (32/86) reported getting a device
repaired at a large electronics retail store, 64% (55/86) at a
kiosk or a small repair store, 14% (12/86) at a commercial
in-home repair service, 9% (8/86) at their organization’s IT
department, 27% (23/86) mailed the device to the manufac-
turer or brought it to a manufacturer store, and 13% (11/86)
at their cellular service provider. In § 7, we investigate why
people chose a particular service provider for repairs.
Finally, we collected information on what type of repair
services were performed (multiple repairs were possible
for one respondent). For the smartphones/tablets category,
the most requested services were screen replacement, bat-
tery replacement, and charging system repair, with 62%
(39/63), 56% (35/63), and 25% (16/63) of respondents,
respectively, reported having requested that service. For the
laptops/desktops category, the most requested services were
virus removal, battery replacement, and screen repair, with
38% (20/52), 33% (17/52), and 29% (15/52) of respondents,
respectively, reported having requested that service.
6.2.3. Repair Protocol. We asked respondents if they were
asked to provide or remove their PIN or password for a
repair (multiple repairs were possible for one respondent).
Of 63 respondents who got smartphones/tablets repaired,
41% (26/63) were not asked to provide their PIN or pass-
word for any repair. 14% (9/63) of respondents did not
have authentication enabled on at least one repaired device.
37% (23/63) were asked to provide their PIN or password
for at least one device, and 17% (11/63) were asked to
remove their PIN or password for at least one device. Of 52
respondents who got laptops/desktops repaired, 37% (19/52)
were never asked to provide their PIN or password. 8%
(4/52) had a device repaired that was not protected with a
PIN or password. 38% (20/52) were asked to provide their
PIN or password for at least one device, and 27% (14/52)
were asked to remove their PIN or password for at least one
device. These findings do not match those from the first part
of the study, where almost all service providers requested
credentials. This difference is due to the broader scope of
the survey as it included locations where credentials may not
be typically requested (14% of respondents used an in-home
repair service, 13% used their cellular service provider, and
9% used their organization’s IT department).
Respondents reported complying with the technician’s
request. All respondents provided their PIN or password
when requested by the technician. We asked respondents
if they felt that providing or removing credentials was
necessary for the repair. 20% (9/46) of these respondents
felt that sharing or removing was not required, 24% (11/46)
felt that it was required, while 57% (26/46) were uncertain
whether there was a need to share or remove the PIN or
7
password. We also asked respondents how comfortable they
were removing or providing their PIN or password. Their re-
sponses were provided on a 5-point Likert scale. Responses
were well distributed, with 4% (2/46) of respondents indicat-
ing they were uncomfortable, 39% (18/46) were somewhat
uncomfortable, 7% (3/46) were neither comfortable nor
uncomfortable, 39% (18/46) were somewhat comfortable,
and 11% (5/46) were comfortable. In § 7, we investigate
why a significant number of respondents are surprisingly
comfortable sharing or removing their credentials.
We asked respondents if they were requested by the
service provider to remove their personal data before the
repair. 69% (59/86) respondents reported that they were not
asked, 26% (22/86) reported that they were asked to and
they did remove data, and 6% (5/86) reported that they were
asked to and they did not remove data.
6.2.4. Threats to Personal Data. We asked respondents
how concerned they were regarding the privacy issues sur-
rounding electronics repairs. Their responses were provided
on a 5-point Likert scale. Only 2/86 (2%) reported being not
concerned, 22/86 (26%) reported being slightly concerned,
22/86 (26%) reported somewhat concerned, 28/86 (33%)
reported being moderately concerned and 12/86 (14%) re-
ported being extremely concerned. A Kruskal-Wallis test ex-
amined the effect of respondents’ technological proficiency
on their reported level of concern and found no significant
differences (H(2) = 0.39, p = 0.83).
We asked respondents if they felt that their personal
data might have been inappropriately accessed during their
last repair service. Their responses were provided on a 5-
point Likert scale. 8/86 (9%) respondents felt that their data
was definitely not accessed, 26/86 (30%) felt that their data
was probably not accessed, 19/86 (22%) were unsure, 22/86
(26%) felt that their data was probably accessed, and 11/86
(13%) felt that their data was definitely accessed. A Kruskal-
Wallis test examined the effect of respondents’ technological
proficiency on their reported level of likelihood that inappro-
priate access occurred and found no significant differences
(H(2) = 2.57, p = 0.28).
Finally, we asked respondents if these privacy concerns
made them reluctant to get their device repaired. 50%
(43/86) respondents reported that these concerns did make
them reluctant, 34% (29/86) were not reluctant due to
privacy risks, while 16% (14/86) never considered privacy
risks. A Pearson’s Chi-Squared test examined the effect of
respondents’ technological proficiency on their response and
found no significant differences (χ2(4) = 4.58, p = 0.33).
6.2.5. Safeguards for Data Protection. We asked respon-
dents if they noticed any safeguards implemented by the re-
pair company during the last repair (multiple responses were
allowed). 71% (61/86) respondents reported not noticing any
safeguards. 21% (18/86) respondents reported that they were
informed by an employee, 8% (7/86) respondents reported
that they found this information in the store, and 7% (6/86)
respondents reported that they found this information on-
line. If respondents reported noticing any safeguards, we
also collected feedback as free-form text on the safeguards
that they noticed. Twenty-two responses were coded, which
include removal of hard drive or data (8/22), reassurance by
technician (7/22), presentation of terms of service (4/22),
and option to get the device repaired in person (3/22).
Finally, we asked respondents if they took any steps to
safeguard their data (multiple responses were allowed). We
provided respondents with several options and allowed entry
of free-form text. 17/86 (20%) reported not taking any steps.
37/86 (43%) reported backing up and deleting data, 26/86
(30%) reported deleting some data, 25/86 (29%) reported
changing passwords or logging out of websites, 9/86 (10%)
ensured that the device or data was encrypted, and 2/86 (5%)
chose “other” (they reported that it was impossible for them
to do anything).
7. Part-4: Semi-Structured Interview
The goal of the semi-structured interview was to get
deeper insights into the experiences of participants during
the repair process and to get feedback on possible solutions
to improve privacy in the electronics repair industry. All par-
ticipants in the interviews had already completed the survey,
and we treated the interview as an extension of the survey.
7.1. Participants and Procedure
Respondents who expressed their interest in participating
in the follow-up interview and met the inclusion criteria (i.e.,
had repaired a device across one or more device categories)
were invited to participate. Eighty-six survey respondents
met the inclusion criteria and were contacted over email to
participate in the interviews (of which two declined, and 54
did not respond in time).
Due to the pandemic, the interviews were conducted
online (using Google Hangouts or Microsoft Teams). We
chose a platform that supported video and screen sharing as
it allowed us to share screenshots of the diagnostic feature of
the BIOS utility and the logging by Problem Steps Recorder
(more details to follow). If participants preferred doing the
interview over the phone, they were required to have an
Internet-connected device to view the screenshots hosted on
Qualtrics to provide their feedback.
For participating in the interview, participants were paid
$20. The interview questions were broadly categorized into
the following categories and required both categorical and
free-form responses (see questions in Appendix C):
•Demographic and background: We collected fur-
ther demographic information and if they had elec-
tronic devices repaired that did not belong to the two
categories considered in the survey (e.g., cameras
and gaming consoles).
•Device needing repair: We asked participants how
long they were using the device, if it was shared with
someone, if it was encrypted, the personal data that
was stored on the device, and the steps the device
owner took before dropping off the device.
8
TABLE 2. INTERVIEW PARTI CI PANT DEMOGRAPHICS
n = 30
Gender
Female Male
16 14
Age (in years)
18–25 26–30 31–35 36–40 41–45 46–50 50+
11 10 5 3 0 0 1
Annual Household Income (×$1000)
<$30 $30–74 $75–99 >$100 Undisclosed
2 12 6 8 2
Highest Education Level
High School Undergraduate Graduate
5 21 4
Self-Reported Proficiency in Technology
Basic Intermediate Advanced
2 24 4
•Choice of service provider: We asked participants
where they got their device repaired, what repair was
performed, and why they chose a particular service
provider.
•Repair experience: We asked participants about
their repair experiences, including the instructions
they were provided during the drop-off, any commu-
nications regarding their privacy, and any suspicions
of privacy violations.
•Possible improvements: We asked participants their
thoughts on possible ways the threat to their personal
data could be mitigated and collected their feedback
on two possible solutions to safeguard the personal
data of users during repairs.
7.2. Results
For qualitative analysis of participants’ responses, two
researchers independently performed open coding to identify
codes or themes in participant responses to free-response
questions. We calculate and report inter-rater agreement over
identified themes using Fleiss’ Kappa. These researchers
then compared and discussed identified codes until a con-
sensus was reached. Several other researchers (e.g., Acar
et al. [1]) in this domain have used this approach. When
reporting results from interviews, we report quotes from
participants when they represent a theme. We also report
the number of participants who expressed that theme and
provide a representative quote.
The demographic information for participants of the
semi-structured interviews is provided in Table 2. For the
interview participants, annual household income levels and
highest education level achieved are reported. The table
shows that our participant pool has good diversity for these
demographics, which is important for our investigation.
7.2.1. Broken Devices. Participants reported having 61 bro-
ken smartphones (69% (42/61) got repaired), 41 broken
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Number of Participants (n=30)
Chats
Contacts
Personal Emails
Pictures
Videos
Passwords
Texts
Work Emails
Banking Information
Personal Adult Content
Figure 2. Participants’ responses to “Did the devices you got repaired
contain any of the following sensitive data?”
computers (63% (26/41) got repaired), and 19 other bro-
ken electronics (58% (11/19) got repaired). Other devices
included 14 tablets, two game consoles, two cameras, and
one dashcam. Participants reported using the broken devices
on average for 2.6 years (median = 2 years) before those de-
vices broke. Participants’ responses were codified to under-
stand why they would not get some broken devices repaired.
The inter-rater agreement between the two researchers was
substantial (Fleiss’s κ= 0.76) Their responses show that
only for 5% (2/42) instances of broken devices not getting
repaired, privacy was the major factor for not getting the
device repaired. However, comments show that due to the
end-of-life of the device (24% (10/42)) and the cost of the
repair (24% (10/42)), some device repairs were never on the
table. Comments were similar to:
“Phone was old, and I was thinking of getting a new
one anyway.” (P13)
“It [smartphone] would have been more expensive to
repair than replace.” (P9)
The majority of the reported repaired devices (96%
(76/79)) were owned by the participant, while 4% (3/79)
were work devices. Figure 2shows what type of data was
stored on the broken devices. It shows that participants
stored all types of sensitive data on their devices. Almost
half of the devices also contained personal adult content,
which was the target of most privacy violations during
the second part of the study. We asked participants if the
device or data was encrypted at the time of the repair. The
encryption status was unknown for 80% (63/79), 1% (1/79)
were encrypted, and 19% (15/79) were not encrypted. We
also asked participants who they shared each repaired device
with. 94% (74/79) were not shared with anyone, 2% (2/79)
were shared with a spouse, and 4% (3/79) were shared
within the household.
7.2.2. Choice of Service Provider. To build solutions that
address privacy concerns, it is important to understand why
device owners choose a particular service provider. For the
interviewed participants, 53% (42/79) devices were brought
to a local store, 10% (8/79) devices were brought to a na-
tional store, 33% (26/79) were brought to the manufacturer,
and 4% (3/79) were brought to a wireless service provider.
We asked participants the rationale behind why they chose a
9
specific service provider (multiple responses were accepted).
Their responses were codified and the inter-rater agreement
between the two researchers was almost perfect (Fleiss’s κ=
0.98). Participants’ responses showed that the reputation of
the service provider was one of the main factors in their
decision-making process (40% (12/30)). Their responses
indicated that the reputation was perceived due to the brand
name of the service provider, the recommendations of oth-
ers, or Google reviews. We also note that the reputation led
to trust:
“I trusted them because they were professionals and
they had very favourable Google reviews so that builds.”
(P23)
“I was ambivalent to get the device repaired, and the
big store [a national service provider] seemed like the
best bet. Likely because of the reputation and I did not
want to get ripped off.” (P30)
Cost and warranty coverage were reported as the other main
factors when choosing a service provider (40% (12/30) and
40% (12/30), respectively). Their responses were similar to:
“to get the warranty to cover it” (P10). Convenience was
the third most cited reason (37% (11/30)). Their responses
were similar to: “It was close to my house and the first place
I thought of.” (P12). A quick turnaround time was cited as
another reason (13% (4/30)).
7.2.3. Risk Consideration. We asked participants if they
considered any risks related to the repair (multiple responses
were allowed). Their responses were codified and the inter-
rater agreement between the two researchers was perfect
(Fleiss’s κ= 1.0). The responses showed that risks to
personal data (30% (9/30)), work data (7% (2/30)), and
banking information (10% (3/30)) were most concerning for
participants. The responses for personal data were similar to:
“I was worried they would go through my pictures and
keep pictures.” (P7)
57% (17/30) participants reported that they did not con-
sider any risks prior to the repair. Their responses show that
reputation and trust played a major role in alleviating their
concerns. Their responses were similar to:
“I just didn’t think of it, I thought [national service
provider redacted] was a big place and safe.” (P3)
“It was for my phone but I trusted [manufacturer
redacted] enough” (P17)
We asked participants what data categories they were
most concerned about (multiple responses were allowed).
Most participants were concerned about their banking infor-
mation (87% (26/30)), 57% (17/30) were concerned about
their passwords, 40% (12/30) were concerned about their
emails, and 40% (12/30) were concerned about personal
adult content. When asked what the technician would do
with their data, 53% (16/30) reported use for financial gains,
9% (5/30) reported identity theft, and 13% (4/30) reported
online account takeover. In the second part of the study,
we found prevalent casual snooping. During the interview,
only 9% (5/30) of participants reported that technicians
would casually snoop on their data and possibly share. Their
responses were similar to:
“They wouldn’t do anything but just snoop.” (P16)
“They could share pictures among themselves.” (P29)
7.2.4. Repair Experience. We present participants’ repair
experiences separately before, during, and after the repair.
For 79 reported repair cases, the most requested repairs
were screen repairs (23% (18/79)) and general hardware re-
pairs (23% (18/79)), followed by battery replacement (18%
(14/79)) and operating system issues (16% (13/79)).
Preparing for repairs. We asked participants how they
prepared their devices before dropping them off for repair on
their own (multiple responses were possible). 50% (15/30)
of participants reported doing nothing on their own. 20%
(3/15) of these participants did not do anything because they
did not share the credentials to the locked device. 17% (5/30)
of participants did not do anything because they could not
access the device’s OS. 13% (4/30) of participants deleted
their data, and 13% (4/30) backed up their device prior to
the repair. 10% (3/30) reported removing their credentials,
so they would not have to provide them or remove them
at the repair location. We noted that four participants who
reported taking some actions to protect their data may not
have done it properly. Their responses were similar to:
“I moved pictures into a file folder and relabelled [re-
named] it.” (P6)
“I uploaded all my photo gallery to Google Photos and
then signed out on the device. I was still so scared
because all my banking still auto-completes, and I felt
sketchy giving it to them.” (P29)
For 87% (69/79) of repairs, participants reported that the
service providers did not provide them with any instructions
on what to do with the device before handing it over to them.
For the remaining repairs, participants were instructed to
backup the device (6% (5/79)), disable “Find My iPhone”
(2% (2/79)), remove the SIM card (1% (1/79)), charge the
battery (1% (1/79)), or factory reset the device (1% (1/79)).
Interactions with service providers. During the interview,
participants reported not seeing any privacy notices or com-
munications from service providers on controls to safeguard
their data. Half of the participants did recall signing terms
of service that include statements about privacy. Their re-
sponses were similar to:
“I signed something that they will withhold confidential-
ity of the passwords you give them.” (P23)
Three participants reported asking about safeguards to pro-
tect their data. One participant was provided no answer (“I
did ask, but he [technician] had no answer.”) (P1). One
participant was offered that they could watch the repair in
the backroom. One participant reported:
“They [service provider] mentioned they were trained,
and they had liability insurance.” (P5)
17% (5/30) of participants reported that they were not asked
to provide their credential or remove it for the repair. Only
25% (4/16) of participants who were required to provide
their credentials thought that the technician had a plausible
10
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Number of Participants (n=30)
Clear Policy
Restricted Access
Customer Present
Remove Data
Third Party
Figure 3. Participants’ codified responses to “Could you suggest a change
to the repair process that would make you more comfortable with getting
your electronic devices repaired?”
reason to request the credentials. While only one participant
reported being comfortable sharing their credentials, all
participants reported sharing their credentials. Their reason
for sharing was the lack of options. The responses were
similar to:
“I did it because I didn’t have money for a new phone
and there was no other option.” (P7)
Participants who were uncomfortable sharing or removing
their credentials did not voice their concerns to avoid the
technicians scrutinizing their device:
“I was not comfortable removing it, but I knew they
would ask me to give the PIN so I pretended that there
was nothing on the device.” (P30)
Post repair. We asked participants if they noticed anything
that indicated that their privacy has been compromised. 17%
(5/30) participants reported that they did not know how to
find such evidence and 83% (25/30) reported not finding any
evidence. Note that our findings from the second part show
that service providers often clear their snooping activity
tracks. 7% (2/30) participants reported that they changed
their passwords after a device repair.
7.2.5. Possible Improvements. We first asked participants
what change could be introduced to better protect their
data during repairs (multiple responses were accepted). The
codified responses (see Figure 3) show that 37% (11/30) of
participants desired clear and consistent policies on access to
customers’ data. The inter-rater agreement between the two
researchers was perfect (Fleiss’s κ= 1.0). Their responses
were similar to:
“Guarantee or policy that is public that they don’t go
through your device... or audit page after the repair
showing what they accessed and why” (P5)
“If they don’t need my password, don’t ask for it. [For
the same issue] [Service provider redacted] asked for
my password and [Service provider redacted] didn’t, so
clearly you can do it without my password. He [techni-
cian] shouldn’t have asked for it.” (P8)
23% (7/30) reported a method of restricting access to
personal data not required for the repair (“If you could
give them a temporary password that they could use for
repair” (P21)). 20% (6/30) proposed that repairs should
be done with customers present, and 20% (6/30) suggested
customers should remove their own personal data before a
repair. 13% (4/30) reported the need for a third party. Their
responses were similar to:
“Some sort of third party that gave you assurances. Sort
of like PayPal with repairs.” (P1)
“A governing body to oversee the repair industry. Espe-
cially with kiosks and small stores.” (P19)
We also sought feedback on two possible solutions that
work for limited scenarios (see § 8for limitations of possible
solutions). First, some frequent repairs could be diagnosed
and verified using the diagnostic utility provided by the
device manufacturer and without accessing the device OS
(e.g., screen, battery, system board). Second, we informed
participants about a logging utility that would record all the
steps taken by the repair technician on their device in the
same format as the Problem Steps Recorder. We informed
participants that while technicians could tamper with the
log, the owner would know if the logs were tampered with,
which may indicate a privacy violation. For both solutions,
we asked participants if these solutions would be effective in
protecting their personal data during (applicable) repairs and
whether participants would use these solutions for device
repair services. For the diagnostic utility, we also asked
participants if they were aware of this utility.
73% (22/30) of participants were not aware of the di-
agnostic utility. 28/30 (93%) and 28/30 (93%) participants
reported that the solution was effective or very effective
at preventing a potential privacy breach for the diagnostic
and logging utility, respectively. 1/30 (3%) and 1/30 (3%)
participants reported that the solution was somewhat or not
effective for the diagnostic and logging utility, respectively.
We observed the same pattern for possible adoption—all but
one participant wanted to use (or try) these solutions. The
one participant’s concern with the logging utility was:
“It’s all after the fact [violation] so it doesn’t have an
effect. It would be better if I could see it in real-time
than after the fact.” (P16)
8. Discussion
8.1. Revisiting Research Questions
RQ1: Existence and communication of privacy policies.
We observed that while some service providers shared a
privacy policy, it was a generic policy on data collection
from customers during retail transactions. These policies did
not address key questions for the device repair use case, such
as how long user data (such as backups and credentials)
are stored, who has access to it, and what controls are in
place to protect customers’ privacy. Furthermore, despite the
media highlighting several privacy violations in this space,
no satisfactory response was provided when the investigator
asked about controls in place to protect customers’ data. We
note the possibility that some service providers may have
implemented some controls or measures, but the customers
were oblivious to them.
RQ2: Level of access requested. Our investigation shows
that the service providers generally demand more access
than required for the requested repair. This demand for
greater access is not necessarily driven by their desire to
11
snoop but for efficiency and productivity reasons, as ev-
ident by the documentation from the manufacturers (see
§4.2). However, even when the repair was possible without
providing the credentials, most service providers would not
make an exception. Service providers want to repair more
devices in the same amount of time using a consistent
and manageable process. The difficulty in predicting which
component is the source of the problem makes it difficult to
determine the type of access required. Consequently, they
prefer complete access to the device for a speedy diagnosis,
repair, and verification without having to contact the user
again [29].In§8.3, we discuss the need for a balance be-
tween efficiency and privacy. The technicians who received
the device at the national service providers stated that they
were unable to take the device without the credentials. If
the technicians were truthful about this process, it indicates
a policy failure; otherwise, it is a process failure.
RQ3: Occurrence and types of privacy violations. The
second part of our study showed that while data theft was
uncommon, casual snooping of customers’ data was a regu-
lar occurrence. Accordingly, viewing of (revealing) pictures
or casual folder snooping was noted as the most common vi-
olation. We note that while our logs did not provide any evi-
dence of the theft of financial data, the technicians may have
copied it using other means (i.e., copied to a paper). Our
investigation also showed that the technicians made an effort
not to leave a trace of their snooping. Evidence of snooping
on confidential information has been previously reported in
other domains, including the workplace [40] and by medical
office workers [6]. Research into why workers snoop is lim-
ited but boredom, curiosity, entitlement, and being treated
unfairly have been suggested [40]. The reasons for snooping
in the repair industry should be established for the design
of effective policies and controls to prevent snooping.
RQ4: Risk perceptions and strategies of customers. The
survey respondents chose not to get 33% of their broken de-
vices repaired because of data privacy concerns. For partici-
pants who got the device repaired, privacy was a concern for
the majority. However, due to the broken device’s essential
nature or the fear of losing their data, participants proceeded
with the repairs. When taking their device in for repair, most
participants were concerned about threats to their financial
data or identity. In terms of safeguarding their data, partici-
pants were often unable to adequately protect their data be-
cause they could not access the device’s OS. Technologically
proficient participants adopted various successful strategies,
but some participants adopted less effective measures due
to their lack of knowledge of the controls available to them,
including hiding files or pretending that they did not have
anything to hide.
RQ5: Potential solutions. The interview provided us with
insights on various fronts, which are discussed in § 8.3.
8.2. Reputation, Trust, and Privacy
Our interview shows that participants’ risk preferences
are influenced by the reputation of the service provider.
Participants placed trust in service providers that had a better
reputation, which lowered participants’ perceived risks. The
reputation of the service provider was often cited as a
deciding factor when choosing a service provider.
The reputation of an entity has been attributed to specific
attitudes and capacities [16]. In the context of electronics
repair, it is the service providers’ capacity to adequately
perform the repair (i.e., their technical competence). How-
ever, reputation leads to a cognitive bias, where the cus-
tomer trusts the service provider with their data based
on the technical competence of the service provider. The
implicit assumption is that the repair will be performed in
an appropriate way (i.e., by respecting existing conventions
and regarding the customer’s interests and privacy). The
documented cases of privacy breaches by all types of service
providers emphasize the need to distinguish between well-
reputed and trustworthy.
Service providers’ trustworthiness with customers’ data
can be established through different sources, including legal
rules, security controls, open policies and processes, and
professional ethics [43]. Not all measures are foolproof—
legal proceedings require evidence and are uncertain and
costly; security controls can be bypassed, and professional
ethics give misleading indications. Furthermore, instances
of abuse of customers’ data have been reported for the
employees of other types of service providers, including
Facebook [10] and Google [11]. While useful, the existing
code of ethics for individuals who handle such data (e.g.,
the USENIX System Administrators’ Code of Ethics [18])
needs to be complemented. More research is needed for a
framework that relies less on trust and more on procedures
and controls that prevent privacy breaches when employees
handle customers’ data.
8.3. Data Protection in the Repairs Industry
The repair service industry saves consumers’ the cost of
buying a new device and reduces electronic waste. How-
ever, protecting customers’ data in the repair industry is
a challenging problem. Customers often have only basic
familiarity with technology and are unaware of the controls
that are available to them to protect their data. Different
devices may have different controls available to protect data
(e.g., folder encryption on computers). Different devices
or manufacturers may provide diagnostic coverage across
different components. Furthermore, on a broken device,
security controls (e.g., data encryption) may not be pos-
sible. On the other hand, service providers want an efficient
and consistent process. However, efficiency and consistency
must be balanced with the potential for privacy violations
as technicians are human and subject to curiosity, which
leads to snooping. We believe that one control or one
stakeholder may not be able to solve this problem in a
satisfactory way. A reliable solution requires actions from
three stakeholders—device manufacturers and OS develop-
ers, service providers, and regulatory agencies.
Device manufacturers can take a more proactive ap-
proach by standardizing the diagnostic interface to minimize
manufacturer-specific differences. Some devices come with
12
the ability to create guest accounts, which provide limited
access to the device for some repairs. Samsung has recently
introduced a “repair mode” to their smartphones [3]. Tech-
nical details are limited but once this feature is enabled,
only default apps can be accessed and access to user data
is blocked until the credentials are provided. OS develop-
ers can provide some reactive controls such as a tamper-
resistant logging utility. Schneier and Kelsey proposed a
cryptographic mechanism to secure logs on an untrusted
machine [45]. Similarly, researchers have leveraged mod-
ern technologies, such as Intel SGX and trusted execution,
for tamper-resistant logging [25], [39]. The Problem Steps
Recorder logging format was found to be “easy to follow”
by the participants as it “showed” them everything that
was accessed. While such a logging utility will catch or
signal possible privacy violations, service providers may
not be willing to disclose their repair techniques. These
solutions are not perfect—guest accounts or the diagnostic
utility are not applicable for repairs like virus removal, and
enabling tamper-resistant logging or “repair mode” requires
a functioning device. Furthermore, these controls would
require users to enable them, and users may not be aware of
these features or forget to enable them. However, through
open policies, service providers can guide customers on the
best control for the device condition and requested repair.
Service providers need to define a policy and adopt
controls that could be used to protect customers’ data from
malicious technicians. In terms of policy, while less efficient,
service providers must move beyond the “all-access” model.
Several common repairs can be completed using the device
manufacturers’ diagnostic utility and others through a guest
account on the device (e.g., screen repair or device battery).
Service providers should communicate why a specific type
of access is requested and the technical controls that cus-
tomers can use to protect different types of data. Ideally,
such information should be made available on the website by
service providers or communicated by device manufacturers
in their mail-in instructions so that customers can complete
those tasks before handing over their device. Finally, service
assessment has been a part of other service industries, which
is achieved through non-technical means such as video
recording with random audits or mystery shoppers. Such
service assessment should be a part of the repair service
industry. It is critical that such policies should be consistent
across different types of service providers, which can be
ensured through a regulatory agency.
Regulatory bodies need to play a strong role in safe-
guarding the privacy of consumers in the repair industry.
The mandate of the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the
US Federal Trade Commission includes the protection of
consumers against unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices
and the education of consumers [13]. Similarly, Section
18 of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic
Documents Act empowers the Canadian Office of the Pri-
vacy Commissioner to undertake an audit of the personal
information management practices of an organization [38].
Other agencies have set precedents in their respective areas.
For instance, in the US, under the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act, the Federal Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has provided guidelines for Public Health to rou-
tinely inspect food service establishments to ensure proper
processes are being followed [50]. A certificate at each
establishment communicates the results to the customers to
make informed decisions. A similar strategy needs to be
adopted for the electronics repair industry to ensure that
privacy breaches are no longer common.
9. Limitation
Similar to other studies involving human participants,
our study has several acceptable limitations. Our online sur-
vey and semi-structured interview contain self-reported data,
which may be influenced by several factors, including the
participants’ memory, understanding, or subjective views.
Participants may have misreported aspects in an effort to
avoid embarrassment or to provide favourable responses to
the researchers. Since these limitations are not avoidable,
we focus on the aspects that were specific to our study.
During the first part, we assumed that the battery re-
placement would not require access to the device OS. While
one service provider agreed to do it without the credentials,
technicians at other service providers may have erroneously
believed that they needed credentials for diagnosis or repair.
It is possible that some service providers may have imple-
mented controls to protect customers’ data but the techni-
cians did not inform us about those controls. For the second
part, our sample size is small. Furthermore, it is subject
to several other limiting factors that are not in our control,
including a curious technician not finding the opportunity to
snoop due to some reason or the presence (or absence) of
privacy violations indicating that a service provider regularly
commits (or does not commit) such violations.
There was a six-week gap between the participants’
online survey responses and their semi-structured interviews.
This gap and the questions posed in the survey may have
influenced participants’ responses during the interview. Dur-
ing the online survey and the interview, participants reported
their experiences that may have occurred in the past five
years. As such, their recall of the details may not have
been accurate. However, the experiences reported by the
participants closely resemble our recent experiences, which
show an absence of policies and protocols to prevent access
to customers’ data.
10. Conclusion
We conduct the first-ever comprehensive study to un-
derstand the state of privacy in the electronic repair services
industry. Our investigation shows an absence of policies and
controls to safeguard customers’ data across all types of re-
pair service providers. We show that despite their concerns,
customers get their devices repaired to save cost or data. We
provide suggestions on how the state of privacy in the repair
industry can be improved. Our work calls to action device
manufacturers, OS developers, repair service providers, and
13
regulatory bodies to take appropriate measures to safeguard
customers’ privacy in the repair industry.
Acknowledgements
This material is based upon work supported by NSERC
under Grant No. RGPIN-2019-05120.
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Appendix
1. Phase-1 Survey for Researchers
The following questions were completed by the re-
searchers within five minutes of leaving the repair store.
Demographics and Background.
1 Name and Location of Repair Center:
2 Date and Time of Visit:
3 Researcher Name:
4 Researcher Gender:
5 Device Type:
6 Did you see any notices/policies on repair privacy?
7 What repair was the device brought in for:
8 Did the technician request any of the following:
(a) Provide PIN or other authentication credentials;
(b) Remove PIN or other authentication; (c) Re-
move data, unlink/remove accounts or factory reset
Provide PIN or other Authentication Credentials, Re-
move PIN or other Authentication, Remove data, un-
link/remove accounts or factory reset
Answer the following questions for each of the above you
were asked to perform.
9 What were you asked to do?
10 Response to “Why is this required?”
11 Response to “Can you do it without doing the
action?” (if not answered by previous response)
Additional Questions.
12 Response to “Will anyone access my data during
the repair?”
13 Response to “How do you ensure no one accesses
my data during the repair?”
2. Online Survey
Demographic Information.
1 How old are you?
(a) 18-25 years old; (b) 26-30 years old; (c) 31-
35 years old; (d) 36-40 years old; (e) 41-45 years
old; (f) 46-50 years old; (g) over 50 years old; (h)
choose not to respond
2 How do you identify?
(a) Female; (b) Male; (c) My gender identity is not
listed above; (d) Choose not to respond
15
3 Which of the following best describes your level
of proficiency with technology like smartphones or
laptops?
(a) Basic (I can perform basic tasks such as sending
emails or browsing the internet); (b) Intermediate
(I can perform intermediate tasks such as chang-
ing the settings or installing new applications); (c)
Advanced (I am capable of writing source code)
Personal Device Repair.
For the purposes of this survey, personal devices include:
Laptop or Desktop Computers, Smartphones (iPhones, An-
droid, etc.), and Tablets or tablet computers. Repairs on
personal devices refer to any of the following services per-
formed by a business such as a retailer, manufacturer, store,
service centre or kiosk (Repair Business):(list removed due
to space constraints)
5 In the last 5 years, when a personal device of
each type broke (experienced damage, a fault or
malfunction) in any way, how often did you attempt
to get it repaired? [Asked for each of the following
categories: Smartphone(s) or Tablet(s) and Laptop
or Desktop Computer(s)]
(a)I have not had any devices of this type that broke
in the last 5 years.; (b) Never; (c) Sometimes; (d)
Always
6[IF Always or Sometimes for Laptop or Desk-
top Computer(s)] In the last 5 years, for each
of these device types, which of the following fac-
tors influenced your decision not to get a broken
device repaired? (check all that apply.)[Asked for
each of the following categories: Smartphone(s) or
Tablet(s) and Laptop or Desktop Computer(s)]
(a) I repaired all devices of this type when they
were broken.; (b) Not worth the cost; (c) Privacy
concerns; (d) Not worth the hassle; (e) Device was
not repairable; (f) Other (A box for free form text
input is provided)
7 In the last 5 years, have you had any of the follow-
ing electronic devices repaired by a store, repair
centre, kiosk or other commercial device repair
service? (Check all that apply)
(a) Smartphone(s) or Tablet(s); (b) Laptop or Desk-
top Computer(s)
8 Where were the device(s) selected above brought
for repair? (Check all that apply, list any other
locations)
(a) Large electronics retailer/store; (b) Repair kiosk
/ small repair store; (c) Manufacturer (in-store or
mailed in); (d) IT department of my workplace, or-
ganization or school; (e) Cellular service provider;
(f) In-home repair; (g) Other (A box for free form
text input is provided)
9 What type(s) of repairs were performed on your
device(s) selected above? (Check all that apply.
Choose N/A if you didn’t select a device of that
type above.)[Asked for each of the following cat-
egories: Smartphone(s) or Tablet(s) and Laptop or
Desktop Computer(s)]
(a) N/A; (b) Screen replacement; (c) Camera repair
or replacement; (d) Battery replacement; (e) Charg-
ing system repair; (f) Motherboard/logic board re-
pair/replacement; (g) Cellular, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth
repair; (h) Audio/microphone repair; (i) Forgot-
ten passcode/PIN; (j) Water damage repair; (k)
Virus/Malware removal; (l) Software installation;
(m) Other hardware repair; (n) Other software re-
pair; (o) Unknown repair (A box for free form text
input is provided)
10 Were you ASKED to provide or remove your pass-
word/login/PIN for any repair for the following de-
vice(s) selected above? (Check all the apply)[Asked
for each of the following categories: Smartphone(s)
or Tablet(s) and Laptop or Desktop Computer(s)]
(a) N/A; (b) No, I was not asked for my pass-
word/login/PIN for any of the repairs; (c) One
or more devices were not protected by a pass-
word/login/PIN; (d) Yes, I was asked for my pass-
word, login or PIN for at least one repair; (e) Yes,
I was asked to remove my password, login or PIN
prior to at least one repair
11 [IF asked for PIN/password during a repair]
You answered “Yes” for at least one device in
the previous question. Did you EVER PROVIDE
your password/login/PIN when asked?[Asked for
each of the following categories: Smartphone(s) or
Tablet(s) and Laptop or Desktop Computer(s)]
(a) N/A; (b) yes; (c) no
12 [IF asked for or to remove PIN/password
during a repair] You previously answered that
you were asked to provide or remove your pass-
word/login/PIN for a repair. For any of these re-
pairs, do you feel that providing or removing your
password/login/PIN was not required for the repair?
(a) Yes; (b) Maybe; (c) No
13 [IF asked for or to remove PIN/password
during a repair] You previously answered that
you were asked to provide or remove your pass-
word/login/PIN for a repair. How comfortable are
you doing this for a repair?
(a) Comfortable; (b) Somewhat comfortable; (c)
Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable; (d) Some-
what uncomfortable; (e) Uncomfortable
14 Have you EVER been asked by a repair company
to remove your personal data from a device before
bringing it in for repair (including factory reset,
erase all content, etc.)? (If you have been asked for
multiple repairs, answer for the most recent)
(a) No, I was never asked to remove my personal
data; (b) Yes, and I removed my data prior to the
repair; (c) Yes, and I did not remove my personal
data prior to the repair (if you unlinked an account
from your device but did not remove your personal
data select this option)
16
15 Prior to getting a device repaired, have you ever
taken any of the following steps to safeguard your
personal data? (Check all that apply. Do not select
actions you were instructed to do by your repair
company.)
(a) I made a copy on a backup device and deleted all
the data off the device I was getting repaired.; (b) I
deleted some of my data.; (c) I set a password/PIN
or set a new password/PIN.; (d) I changed pass-
words or logged out of websites or apps.; (e) I
encrypted the device or ensured it was already
encrypted.; (f) Other (A box for free form text input
is provided)
16 During the last 5 years, were you ever concerned
that your personal information could have been
compromised during a repair?
(a) Yes; (b) No; (c) I don’t know
17 How concerned are you with the privacy issues
surrounding electronics repair?
(a) Extremely concerned; (b) Moderately con-
cerned; (C) Somewhat concerned; (d) Slightly con-
cerned; (e) Not at all concerned
18 Has the risk of your personal data being accessed
by an unauthorized party ever made you reluctant
to get a device repaired?
(a) Yes; (b) No; (c) I never considered this risk
Protecting Private Data.
19 At any time during your LAST repair transaction,
were you aware of any safeguards implemented by
the repair company to protect your personal data?
(check all that apply)
(a) Yes, I was informed about one or more measures
the repair company was taking to protect my pri-
vacy by an employee; (b) Yes, I saw information
about one or more measures the repair company
was taking to protect my privacy displayed in the
store; (c) Yes, I saw information about one or more
measures the repair company was taking to protect
my privacy online; (d) No; (e) Other (A box for free
form text input is provided); (f) Not applicable
20 [IF saw or was informed about measures to
protect privacy]You previously answered that you
were aware of steps taken by the repair company
to protect your privacy. What steps did the repair
company take to protect your personal data? (A box
for free form text input is provided)
21 During your LAST repair, do you feel your per-
sonal data could have been inappropriately ac-
cessed?
(a) Definitely yes; (b) Probably yes; (c) Unsure; (d)
Probably not; (e) Definitely not
3. Semi-Structured Interview
Demographics Information.
1 How old are you? (same options as survey Q1)
2 How do you identify? (same options as survey Q2)
3 What is the highest level of education you have
achieved?
(a) Some high school; (b) High school; (c) Some
college/university; (d) Trade/technical/vocational
training; (e) Associate’s degree; (f) Bachelor’s de-
gree; (g) Master’s degree; (h) Professional degree;
(i) Doctorate; (j) Prefer not to say
4 What’s your annual household income?
(a) Under $15,000; (b) $15,000-$29,999; (c)
$30,000-$49,999; (d) $50,000-$74,999; (e)
$75,000-$99,999; (f) $100,000-$150,000; (g) Over
$150,000; (h) Prefer not to answer
5 Which of the following best describes your educa-
tional background or job field?
(a) I have an education in, or work in, the field of
computer science, computer engineering or IT; (b)
I do not have an education in, nor do I work in, the
field of computer science, computer engineering or
IT; (c) Prefer not to say
6 Which of the following best describes your level
of proficiency with technology like smartphones or
laptops? (same options as survey Q3)
Experience Getting Devices Repaired.
7 Please count the number of the following types
of devices that required repair/service, and how
many you got repaired in each category:[Asked
for the following categories: Smartphones, Laptop
or Desktop Computers, Tablets, Cameras, Game
Consoles]
8IF device wasn’t repaired For each device that
had broken but was not repaired, why was it not
repaired?
Repaired Device. These questions were asked for each
device that was indicated as having been repaired.
9 What device were you getting repaired? [Re-
searchers noted down the make/manufacture and
model. Additionally, Researchers noted down how
long its been since the device was repaired.]
10 Approximately how long have you used the device
(or how long have you owned the device)?
11 Was the device owned by you, Owned by your
company, workplace, institution, or school – Only
or primarily for work use, or Owned by your com-
pany, workplace, institution, or school – Used for
both personal and work use?
12 Did this device contain any of the following sensi-
tive data?[Asked for the following categories: Con-
tacts, Personal Emails, Passwords/Logins Including
Apps, Work Emails, Texts, Chats, Pictures, Videos,
Personal Adult Content, Commercial Adult Con-
tent, Banking Information, Digital Wallet]
13 Was this your primary device, and was it shared
with someone else (spouse, children, etc.)?
14 Is the device encrypted, or has it ever been en-
crypted? [Researchers noted responses that had to
do with the repair in question 18.]
17
15 Where was the device brought for repair (Store,
Kiosk, mailed in, manufacturer, IT department,
etc.)? Or was it an in-home repair (record if in-
home repair service for manufacturer, store, etc.)?
What was the rationale behind using this repair
vendor?
16 What repair or service was performed on the de-
vice? Were you aware of the cause of the problem
with the device prior to the repair?
17 Prior to the repair, were you asked to take any
steps? If yes, do you know what would happen if
the device was too damaged to comply with these
instructions?
18 What steps did you take on your own to prepare
the device for the repair (not because you were
instructed to by the repair company)?
19 Did you consider risks to your personal data when
getting the device repaired? If so, what were those
risks? Did you have any concerns about your data
(name types)? [If no risks were reported, the re-
searcher tried to understand why it wasn’t consid-
ered.]
20 At any time during the repair transaction, were you
made aware of any safeguards implemented by the
repair company to protect your data?
21 Were you required to provide the repair technician
with your PIN, password, or other authentication
information? if yes:
21.1 Was a reason given for why it was required?
21.2 Did the reason seem plausible to you?
21.3 Were you comfortable giving your
PIN/password?
22 Did you feel your personal data was safe when
getting your device repaired? (5-point Likert scale
“1” - “5, 5 being very safe”)
23 Do you recall an incident where your personal data
may have been compromised during a repair? If
yes:
23.1 When did this occur?
23.2 What makes you believe your data may
have been compromised?
23.3 Did you take any recourse?
General Questions.
24 Which of the following types of personal data
are you most concerned about a repair technician
accessing: [Researchers recorded free response an-
swers for all categories in Q12.]
25 If your personal data was compromised during an
electronic device repair, what do you believe would
be done with the data?
26 Could you suggest a change to the repair process
that would make you more comfortable with getting
your electronic devices repaired?
27 If there was a way to better protect your personal
data during the repair of electronic devices, do you:
27.1 Feel you would be more likely to use elec-
tronics repair services?
27.2 Be more comfortable during a repair?
28 Researchers are proposing a logging program that
cannot be disabled by the repair technician. It
would be clear if the logs were deleted by the tech-
nicians. The following are pictures are examples of
the screenshots that would be taken by the program
during the repair so you are able to verify your pri-
vacy was maintained during the repair. [Researcher
showed example output of the Windows Problem
Step Recorder.]
28.1 How effective do you feel this proposed
logging program would be at preventing
privacy breaches?(5-point Likert scale “1”
- “5, 5 being very safe”) [Researchers also
recorded free text response]
28.2 Would you feel your personal data is safe
when getting your device repaired if the
logging program was used? (5-point Likert
scale “1” - “5, 5 being very safe”) [Re-
searchers also recorded free text response]
28.3 Would you use this solution for repair ser-
vices if it was available? [Researchers asked
why for no and maybe responses]
(a) yes; (b) no; (c) maybe
29 [Researchers showed an example of UEFI diagnos-
tics from a HP Laptop (see Figure 4).] In this mode,
most hardware on the device can be tested but no
personal data can be seen or retrieved on the device.
The “Diagnostic mode” can be accessed without a
PIN/password. This mode exists for most laptops
but most tablets and smartphones do not have this
feature.
Figure 4. Tests available through HP BIOS Diagnostic Utility
29.1 Did you know such a mode existed on lap-
tops for diagnostics? Were you ever made
aware of this by a repair facility?
18
29.2 Would you be less concerned about your
data privacy if a “Diagnostic Mode” option
existed for the service you are requesting?
29.3 Would you be more likely to get your elec-
tronic devices repaired if it had this feature?
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