PC Rental Companies Agree To Not Watch You Have Sex
from the i-see-you dept
People are spying on you. All kinds of people. Law encorcement does it. The NSA does it. Schools are monitoring our children. But I'll tell you who is not spying on you: PC rental companies. Well, at least not anymore.But they were spying on you before federal charges were brought against them. It turns out that seven rent to own PC companies were employing software that logged your keystrokes, retained your social media passwords, recorded your social security passwords, snapped photos of people having sex with web cams, and even allowed rental company employees to deploy a French tickler through the screen to rub people's naughty bits (fine, fine, I made that last one up).
The companies captured screenshots of confidential and personal information, logged keystrokes and took webcam pictures of people in their homes. Their aim was to track the computers belonging to costomers who were behind with their payments.Yes, thank God for the FTC, because if anyone is going to watch me have sex, it's going to be the neighbors (no, I will not close the window and draw the shades, damn it, I like the breeze!). My question is why the hell anyone, especially the company that made the spying software used, DesignerWare, thought this kind of intrusion was necessary to begin with. Hell, this isn't even the first time a rental company using this software has gotten into trouble over it. The rental companies said they needed the software to remotely shut down and wipe stolen machines, as well as to initiate a kill switch on customer's machines when they were behind in payments. Those both make sense to me. Where do we get the explanation for logging keystrokes and in any way using the web cam?
"An agreement to rent a computer doesn’t give a company license to access consumers’ private emails, bank account information, and medical records, or, even worse, webcam photos of people in the privacy of their own homes," says FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz. "The FTC orders today will put an end to their cyber spying."
At least the FTC must have brought the hammer down for such a gross violation of privacy, right?
The rent-to-own companies are Aspen Way Enterprises, Watershed Development, Showplace, JAG Rents, Red Zone, B Stamper Enterprises and CALM Ventures. They've got off lightly, agreeing to stop using the data-collection software and to stop deceiving customers.I'll have to keep this in mind the next time I break the law. Just agree not to do it again and everything is okay, apparently. In the meantime, anyone who is renting computers can avoid these companies.
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Filed Under: ftc, key logging, pc rentals, spying
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Re:
I smell a class action suit
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Re: Re: Why oh why...
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Re: Re: Re: Why oh why...
Linux is not an OS. It is just a Kernel.
/Flamebait mode on
What you want is a proper Linux-based OS, like Debian.
/Takes cover
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Why oh why...
Wait, is that even a controversial statement?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Why oh why...
It's perfectly possible to download and compile the default kernel - however you'd need some of the separate packages installed to get any use out of it - distributions merely come with a set of default packages for this purpose.
/ducks back behind bunker
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why oh why...
I'll draw fire, I've looked into it and it is an OS for poor people. Everything you do is very nearly, or completely manual, installing a program is like pulling teeth, expect to be dead last to get driver support for anything. Worst of all it doesn't play mainstream games. Maybe after every other OS and gaming system has a porting of a game it may fall to Linux, likely not though, and those emulators for windows games not only suck, they often even want money for them.
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This assumes you have a broadband connection, which today isn't a stretch. I was amazed how dependent it was on the "cloud" data bases, but once you had it percolating it was pretty much tag it and bag it for any reasonable application. A little churning and it downloaded it installed & made a shortcut. If all I wanted to do was surf and an occasional office task, maybe print a photo or 2 I'd consider it.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why oh why...
I use Linux extensively for work and home, I have little problems with gaming or productivity. I have to say I haven't regretted one moment switching from Windows and now when I'm forced to use MS tech (clients' systems) I just find myself frustrated at how limited and unintuitive it is.
Not to mention, your probably using at least 2 Linux OSes in your daily life and you don't even know it. You don't even have to think about it because Linux is just that reliable.
I constantly find myself amazed at these uninformed comments, even on tech sites.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why oh why...
I'd also love to put a few clients on Ubuntu, unfortunately business apps generally require windows, you're damn lucky if they work with that, and that's just the reality of life.
It really doesn't matter if it is superior in many ways, it isn't what suppliers expect to see, and that makes it a poor choice.
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Amphiboly Alert:
People were having sex with web cams? Ewww.
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thty3ty
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Re: thty3ty
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Re: thty3ty
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what's the problem?
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Re: what's the problem?
OK, but seriously, I can understand a company wanting to track computers that actually belong to the company. The problem is, if this level of tracking software is installed, the computer becomes worthless for any sort of private communications. Not to mention the fact that the actions seem to constitute wiretapping, at the very least - a communication is being intercepted electronically, and that's pretty much all you need.
The most I would allow is a "ping" allowing the company to know the IP address of the computer. And even that should be disclosed to the customer at the time of rental.
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I finally had enough and left after my I found out my boss scammed a nun (Yes, a real nun in a convent). It's a good thing I left, as the RCMP came by my place the following year to ask me questions related to the company and my former boss, turns out my boss was also falsifying tax remittances and some other counts of fraud. It was a good learning experience though for a naive student right out of high school.
I wonder if my old boss is running one of these PC rent to own places now.
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Just because
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High Court Low Court
High Court Low Court is alive and well in the US legal system.
That said, people really should be more careful with computers that are actually legally owned by someone else. That someone might have installed any kind of malware/spyware/adware/whatever. Same thing applies to cloud computers or computer bureaus. The only computer you truly own is the one you truly own. Even then, you will find companies/governments trying to take away your control (DRM anyone).
If you are grandma, get your computer checked out by someone knowledgeable whom you can really trust.
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Better yet, don't rent a computer. You can get them for $200.00 these days.
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alex
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