BOSTON, MA — It’s one thing to be accused of being an illegal gun runner or manufacturer of a chemical weapons agent – but for agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to find out you look at porn? That’s more humiliation than Michael Alan Crooker could bear.Crooker, who currently resides in a Connecticut jail, is suing Microsoft alleging Internet Explorer failed to properly delete his browsing history, leading to “great embarrassment” at the hands of government and law enforcement agents.
In his lawsuit against the giant software company, Crooker argues that security features advertised by Microsoft and other vendors should have prevented federal law enforcement officers from accessing private files on his PC, which reportedly included his medical records, family photographs, correspondence with his attorneys, home-made videos of Crooker having sex with his girlfriend, and a detailed browser history that included Crooker’s recent porn site surfing.
In the suit, Crooker states that he purchased the PC, a Compaq Presario, pre-loaded with Microsoft products including Windows XP and IE, in 2002 at a Circuit City location in Holyoke, MA. In documents filed with the court, Crooker states that he “felt secure in Circuit City’s claims of impenetrability and security.”
The discovery of the “embarrassing” materials on Crooker’s PC stem from a raid conducted at Crooker’s home in 2004 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in June 2004. The ATF raid was part of an investigation into the sale of an air rifle equipped with a silencer, according to InformationWeek.com.
According to ARSTechnica.com, a report filed by agents following the search states that agents found “laboratory devices, apparent IEDs, fermenting castor beans, chemicals and chemical equipment appropriate for the processing of castor beans into ricin, and what appeared to be ricin and ricin precursors in various stages of development, indicating that Crooker was successfully manufacturing ricin.”
Crooker’s laptop was also seized during the raid, and was then sent to the FBI’s Cryptologic and Electronic Analysis (CEA) division for further inspection. With the assistance of Hewlett-Packard, CEA agents were able to get around the Compaq “DriveLock” security, at which point they found the files that Crooker references in his lawsuit.
In his lawsuit, Crooker asserts that he had set IE to delete his browsing history after five days and alleges that the software failed to perform that automated task.
“Any day beyond those parameters is supposed to be permanently deleted and is not supposed to be recoverable,” Crooker states in his lawsuit.
Crooker also asserts that then he purchased the PC from Circuit City, employees there assured him that XP, IE, and other software installed on the computer would keep his data entirely secure.
According to ARSTechnica.com, a lawsuit that Crooker filed against Hewlett-Packard was thrown out by the court in May of last year, due to Crooker’s inability to file the proper paperwork and pay the required $250 filing fee.
In his new lawsuit against Microsoft, Crooker states that he has already arrived at settlements with both Circuit City and Hewlett-Packard.
Crooker is seeking $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from Microsoft in the suit.
