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Concerned about files being accessed on MacBook sent in for servicing

S

SethBoy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 23, 2007
219
635
Hi, so I recently sent in my Mac for servicing and all I had was the default Mac OS login password. No Filevault set or anything.

I'm assuming it is easy for the genius to gain access to my files?

Is there any way I can check if my files have been accessed eg. date last open of file or something to that effect?
 
If there was no filevault set then yes, anything on the hard drive would be a accessible.

There's plenty of ways people can view the contents without affecting any attributes, so the assumption should be 'yes' even though the likelihood is probably that they haven't.

Also, there's always the chance they reinstall the OS etc. this loosing all your files (including any signs the files had been accessed).
 
I got my Mac (no T2, Catalina, no FileVault) back with my data and user account intact with the same password.

I understand that without T2 chip and FileVault, System Recovery could have resetted my password, but they would then have to reinstate my password so I’m ruling this out.

Is it possible for them to boot from an external drive, copy files over, then access those files? I was under the impression that files in my user directory was password locked to my user, but I’m not sure if this is true.

May be paranoia but would appreciate knowing the risk I was exposed to.
 
If you are paranoid about people seeing what is on your computer, clone your system drive to an external using SuperDuper or CCC, then do a clean install of the OS (no file or App migration) on your machine before sending it in for service. That way there are no files to access and you can clone your existing system back after service. No worries.
 
MSastre said:
If you are paranoid about people seeing what is on your computer, clone your system drive to an external using SuperDuper or CCC, then do a clean install of the OS (no file or App migration) on your machine before sending it in for service. That way there are no files to access and you can clone your existing system back after service. No worries.
Click to expand...

Yes I will certainly do so in future.

Mr_Brightside_@ said:
Yes
Click to expand...

Does this include keychain?
 
If you care, don't bother erasing the drive. There's ways of extracting data from flash chips. The right way is to enable FileVault. This protects you against the case where you have a sudden catastrophic failure and have to send the system for service without being able to wipe the system.

This is a big advantage of PCs with removable drives. For about $10, PC vendors will sell you a "keep your own drive" option where you are entitled to retain possession and destroy any drives replaced under warranty (that is, they send you a new one without demanding the old one back). A lot of companies do this to satisfy their security requirements.
 
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