Re: HP pavilion preloaded spyware is sticky...

Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:
Mark Trimble wrote:


Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:


warf wrote:


...

By not installation stuff with admin rights. And by using an operating
system and drivers you trust.

Where's the logic in that line of thought? Take this for instance:

I download the driver for a peripheral from the manufacturer's web site.
I've checked, and yes, I AM downloading from their web site. The software
insists on phoning home before it will work. The manufacturer did not and
does not state that their software *must* phone home before it will work,
in any form or anywhere, including the EULA. By your logic, the
manufacturer I obtained the software from is not trustworthy. How, then do
I find a 'trustworthy' software provider for that peripheral driver - or
any software for that matter?


Indeed, if such an example actually existed in reality, one should really
resort so open source operating system with open source drivers. Luckily,
such an example isn't known up today.

BTW, what software? A driver usually only consists of the driver, some
libraries, an INF installer and maybe a control panel. No reasonable person
uses setup.exe to install all the bundled software.

Sebasitan, the whole point of this thread _IS_ the drivers HP supplies for many oth their devices are 'sticky' and in fact do just what Mark said..they refuse to function if denied access to the internet AND they cannot easily be installed sans phonehome routine. EVEN if one bypasses the setup.exe and uses [for eg] the "windows install printer" function thru the control panel and points the location to the inf file on the CD...the inf file calls the whole damned business and it loads everything. I tried stopping the HP background install when the XP install window said it as finished...the inf file was in windows32 dir but the printer was offline and could not be brought online. The Dlls for that were missing or inactivated.
AND if that is not convincing, HP tier2 tech support was assisting me in the final attempts [read my earliest posts on this].
to recap; i was told the driver was "integrated" with the 'share to web' and 'customer enhancement' [sic] features and could not be enabled without these 'features'
I appreciate all you assistance thus far BUT, that as the entire point on this rant..."IT IS STICKY...STICKY STICKY!"
How could you speculate on this being a hypothetical if you are not an HP/XP user and attempted to ...after first discovering it...remove that trojan and still enable functionality?

FTR...if anybody has been lurking and has become aware of this same phenomena please speak up and at least let me know I am not the only person to have come up against it AND cared enough to attempt to gain a measure of control over it!
Sheesh....I thought it was straight forward...this ain't like arguing legal EULA axioms thru the eyes of non-lawyers ...it is an actuality...provable...repeatable...verifiable...
But I do prattle on when frustrated....
Maybe this is the wrong forum??? XP is not it...HP is definitely not it.
Someone mused earlier " why did you get another HP product when you had that trouble earlier?" The tech supt guy admitted it as a poor idea to enmesh those features and the next models would not be so co-dependent...he likely doesnt work there anymore. HP was so morally bankrupt at the CEO level i can't imagine for a moment a mere customer would merit privacy considerations.
And to all the minute men out there...No, I have nothing to hide....YET, but that is entirely dependent on the social climate, hell even suggesting the earth orbited the sun was a death sentence once[for eg]. I recall women in the US weren't allowed to vote until 1926[?] and suggesting the war in Vietnam was immoral was a conviction of commie...[now it is Iraq that is sacred].
The point is, HP makes phoning home a no-choice-enhancement.
Merry xmas fellas.
Warf.
.

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