Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Crime Squad have been approaching O'ahu computer-repair specialists, network consultants and software developers and asking them to report any overtly criminal activity they find in customers' computers.

Owners of computer repair shops reported that FBI agents have come calling for at least a year.

Some business owners and network security consultants favor the approach, which enlists old-school police beat work to combat high-tech crime.

Others — like the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Hawai'i and some local computer users — are wary of the tactic, saying it comes dangerously close to violating a person's privacy rights.

By Peter Boylan at Honolulu Advertiser.

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