Posted on 05/03/2011 1:22:18 PM PDT by Kartographer
A major furniture rental chain has software on its computers that lets it track the keystrokes, screenshots and even webcam images of customers while they use the devices at home, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Wyoming couple who said they learned about the PC Rental Agent "device and/or software" inside the computer they rented last year when an Aaron's Inc. store manager in Casper came to their home on Dec. 22.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
A built in piece of hardware — as far as can be told, not even replacing Windows with Linux would have stopped the spying.
Linux probably wouldn’t have the correct device drivers for this hardware.
I don’t want to get into blaming the victims here, but who the heck is dumb enough to “rent” a computer, especially when after two months of renting it they had $900 cash to buy out the contract? That $900 used wisely could probably have bought them twice the computer they ended up getting, or better yet, they could have ended with the computer they did (minus the spyware) for half what they paid. Crazy.
Unless it operates down in the BIOS like anti-hijacking firmware. Then it does not matter whether Windows or Linux is calling the BIOS. The BIOS rats on you through the ethernet or wireless ports. (Maybe this could be dodged by using an idiosyncratic piece of networking hardware that is Greek to the BIOS.)
Prolly came with a gold plated support contract.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.