Is it policy for Apple Store to ask for user password to repair iMac?

Question

My father just took his iMac G5 into the Apple Store to get repaired. It seemingly is having a power supply issue (http://www.apple.com/support/imac/powersupply/repairextension/).
They said they needed his password. This sounded absurd to me. Is this common practice?
thanks,
Clint

Answer 1

..."and implied that if he didn't give it to them, that it wasn't their fault if the computer wasn't fixed."...
I find that appalling. Realistically, I doubt that Apple Stores are setting out to steal their customer's personal information, but there is no question from your account that that is the risk that people are being coerced to expose themselves to. Every organization will have its, ahem, bad apples, and it isn't unheard of for repair techs to go snooping in people's hard drives, eg.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/investigations/video-consumerist-catches-geek-sq uad-stealing-****-from-customers-computer-271963.php
Given this reality, there really should be a policy against asking for a user password which grants access beyond what can be read straight off of the hard drive. But three separate people have posted about being asked for their account passwords for a repair that should not require it. The specific stores haven't been mentioned, but I find it unlikely that all three of you are posting about the same store so it would seem the practice unfortunately seems to be common.
I don't know about the specifics, or merits of the case (IANAL), but a class action lawsuit has been launched against Apple for following unsafe practices with respect to the inclusion of too much personal information on receipts they issue for online purchases.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201311228
The picture I'm getting that somewhere in the chain of command, someone at Apple the corporation doesn't "get" the importance of protecting customers' personal information to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
Sorry, I don't know what to suggest about who to report this to, or what steps to take to ensure that any personal information that could potentially have been accessed is not misused.