HP Printers Try To Send Data Back To HP About Your Devices and What You Print

'Robert Heaton:

Last week my in-laws politely but firmly asked me to set up their new
HP printer. I protested that I'm completely clueless about that sort
of thing, despite my tax-return-job-title of "software engineer."
Still remonstrating, I was gently bundled into their study with an
instruction pamphlet, a cup of tea, a promise to unlock the door once
I'd printed everyone's passport forms, and a warning not to try the
window because the roof tiles are very loose. At first the setup
process was so simple that even a computer programmer could do it. But
then, after I had finished removing pieces of cardboard and blue tape
from the various drawers of the machine, I noticed that the final step
required the downloading of an app of some sort onto a phone or
computer. This set off my crapware detector.

[...] It was a way to try and get people to sign up for expensive ink
subscriptions and/or hand over their email addresses, plus something
even more nefarious that we'll talk about shortly (there were also
some instructions for how to download a printer driver tacked onto the
end). This was a shame, but not unexpected. I'm sure that the HP ink
department is saddled with aggressive sales quotas, and no doubt the
only way to hit them is to ruthlessly exploit people who don't know
that third-party cartridges are just as good as HP's and are much
cheaper. Fortunately, the careful user can still emerge unscathed from
this phase of the setup process by gingerly navigating the UI patterns
that presumably do fool some people who aren't paying attention.'

-- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/09/17/1454203

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
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