A new poorly-worded Texas law now (possibly) requires computer repair shops to obtain a private investigator’s license in order to do their jobs (a process that requires either a criminal justice degree or a 3-year apprenticeship under a licensed P.I.).
Depending on how the law in interpreted, anyone in Texas who performs any kind of data analysis in the course of fixing a computer must have a P.I. license or face a $4000 fine, a year in jail, and a $10,000 civil penalty. Simple hardware repairs, such as swapping out memory or a power supply, would not require a license, but anyone who has done any kind of computer repair work knows that such repairs are only a small part of the job.
Others say that’s not what the bill means at all:
But Driver said the bill was intended to protect consumers from privacy invasion and that the problems for computer technicians have been exaggerated. Driver said the only cases in which computer technicians would need a license would be when they are asked to investigate and analyze private data — for example, examining a computer to determine whether the user had committed any illegal activities.
To me, it sounds like they’re just trying to protect consumers from the Geek Squad. In that case, more power to ‘em!