About
Small shop, strong opinions. Under Your Roof Tech is a local business that sets up and repairs technology people can actually own.
Most of what you do with a computer now happens on hardware someone else owns, under terms they can change whenever they like. We think that is a bad deal, and we fix it one house at a time.
Over the last fifteen years, most of what people do with computers moved into rented space. Your photos are on Google's drives. Your camera footage is on Amazon's. Your passwords, your documents, your thermostat schedule, your kid's homework, all of it lives on hardware someone else owns.
It works fine until it does not. Prices go up. Features move behind a higher tier. A product gets discontinued and the device on your wall stops working. An account gets flagged by a machine and ten years of pictures are gone with nobody to call.
We started this business because none of that is necessary. The software to run all of it in your own house exists, it is good, and most of it is free. What most people are missing is someone to set it up properly and stand behind it.
That is the job.
Five rules we work by.
- 01
You should own it.
Hardware in your house, data on your drives, keys in your hand.
- 02
Local first, internet optional.
Everything we install keeps working when the internet is down. Remote access is a bonus, not a requirement.
- 03
Fix it before you replace it.
Most electronics die of one cheap part or a decade of dust.
- 04
No lock-in, including to us.
We install open source software on standard hardware and leave written documentation. If you ever want someone else to take over, they can.
- 05
Plain talk.
We tell you what it costs, what it does, and what it does not do. If the cheaper option is the right one, we will say so.
How your data lost its warrant.
The plain-English version, in four dates.
- 1976
United States v. Miller
The Supreme Court decides your bank records belong to the bank. Once you hand information to a third party, the Fourth Amendment mostly stops protecting it.
- 1979
Smith v. Maryland
The numbers you dial are the phone company's business too. Collecting them needs no warrant.
- 1986
Stored Communications Act
Congress writes rules for data held by providers. Some of it needs a warrant, some only a subpoena, and the provider often does not have to tell you.
- 2018
Carpenter v. United States
A rare pullback. Your phone's location history needs a warrant. The court was careful to say the old rule still stands for most other records.
Put together, that is the third-party doctrine. It is why a police department can ask a camera company for your doorbell footage and sometimes get it without a warrant and without asking you. It is why the contents of your cloud storage are not quite as private as the contents of your filing cabinet.
Footage on a recorder in your closet is different. So are photos on a drive in your house. To get those, someone has to come to your door with a warrant, and you will know about it.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. It is just the reason we think your stuff belongs under your roof.
One shop, one phone number.
Under Your Roof Tech was started by a software developer who spent years building systems for businesses and got tired of watching friends and family pay rent on their own data. The business is small on purpose. When you call, you talk to the person who does the work.
We work in Your Town and everything within about an hour of it. Installs and setups happen at your place. Repairs are handed off by arrangement.
Questions?
Ask. We would rather talk you out of a bad idea than sell you one.