HP Printers Try To Send Data Back To HP About Your Devices and What You Print (robertheaton.com) 143
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.
[...] 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.
they make crap printers (Score:2)
two years ago i bought one of their all-in-one color laser printers, the big ones with the scanner on top. Right out of the box the damn thing was unable to print straight lines, it printed the same exact wiggle at a regular interval. Doesn't take much to imagine there's something out-of-round or a gear has a wiggly tooth somewhere.
Maybe they should stick to the fundamentals before building-in software no one asked for.
And yes I don't have a car so I had to carry that dumb thing from and back to the store i
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It's the Brother MFC-9340CDW, with duplex printing. It's just OK. Turns out I use it more for the scanner, and I could just print the few things I need at a shop, but that means taking a shower and getting dressed, so...
Re: they make crap printers (Score:4, Interesting)
I personally have had very good results with brother printers in terms of reliability. Printers are finicky little machines with many moving parts, and perhaps the last precision instrument that we still use in computing (save for hard disks, which will probably disappear from the consumer space by 2025, which is a number I pulled out of my ass.) I think my last brother printer lasted 8 years before one day when I had to move, the printer started jamming all the time at it's new location. Could have been damaged in transit, not sure, but in my experience, 8 years is a very long time for a printer, especially one that spent most of its life in a mechanic shop around a shitload of dust, grime, and a bunch of retards that will reach for a crescent wrench when needed the hammer right next to it.
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Re: they make crap printers (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, that's your problem. Epsom makes salts, not printers.
Re: they make crap printers (Score:5, Interesting)
My Borther laser is a black and white printer. We had a Canon inkjet that we kept around for color, but it ended up just collecting dust - the need to actually print in color was so low it wasn't worth the cost.
It was, after all, cheaper to get photos you wanted printed out using a photo service - printed on real photo paper and all that, and the results are stunning and better than what any inkjet can do. Plus it won't run if it gets wet, and it cost only around 50 cents each, which is much cheaper than specialty paper and ink costs.
Sure I won't have them out in 5 minutes, but there hasn't been a situation where I needed to have photos printed out and I didn't have a couple of days.
As for printer jamming - I found out it's less the printer and more likely the paper you use. Our office went from Hammermill paper to whatever Amazon Basics had, and there was nothing but problems. Spec wise, it looked the same (20lb bond paper, matte white, etc). But when we switched, all the printers were getting paper jams. Didn't matter if it was an old printer we had for a decade and needed new rollers, or a new printer we bought to replace one that was completely worn out and leaving lines (and hard to get someone in to service).
After that we simply kept ordering the Hammermill paper - it cost a lot more (easily double), but not having printers constantly jam up, nor lineups at printers because someone's print job jammed on page 2 an hour ago and no one noticed or bothered to fix it or babysit the print job was well worth the extra expense. Plus, it's not much more when you consider all those crumpled sheets end up in the recycling.
Amazing how the paper itself was the cause. Even in my old Brother, the cheap paper constantly caused mis-feeds and could never go more than 5 pages without an error. Now with the premium paper it works. Should really change the rollers on it eventually.
Now I shun cheap paper. Might want to look into that - perhaps after the move you switched paper brands which is the cause of the jams.
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> Our office went from Hammermill paper to whatever Amazon Basics had, and there was nothing but problems.
I use this Hammermill Paper, Premium Laser Print Paper, 8.5 x 11 Paper [amazon.com] with my Color Laser printer. Excellent quality.
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8 years is a very long time for a printer,
Tell that to a Laserjet 4+. I'll grant you, it's ancient and slow, and it weighs a lot, but my god, that thing was unstoppable. I sold it when it was fifteen years old, still working just fine. I'm still using the Brother that replaced it.
Maybe in an office environment, they don't last so long, but for light home use? IIRC the LJ4+ was rated for 20k pages per month duty cycle - almost an hour a day of nothing but printing if it was at its maximum speed (font in printer, no graphics).
especially one that spent most of its life in a mechanic shop
Oh, well, never mind, t
HP printing for android (Score:5, Informative)
My Android phone came with an HP printer driver. It was amazing, because it auto-discovered my printer on the network (it isn't even a wi-fi printer, it's ethernet) and let me print from my phone. The printer has features that connect to the HP cloud but I don't use them. At some point about 2 years ago, the android printer driver suddenly required me to agree to an EULA that talking about monitoring and phoning home. I began to suspect that the way this worked is that the printer phoned home to HP, and the print job was sent to HP, then back to the printer. I never investigated it since there is no way a sane person would agree to that EULA. I just print from my computer. The phone is a too small of a device for reading and printing documents anyway so it was rare for me to even need it.
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Bonour Airprint. Practically every printer these days supports it, no need for drivers and such. Except for some broken HP printers, that won't present it unless they talk with an HP driver to "activate" first. After that they work just fine with no connection other than to a standalone dhcp server with no routes to anywhere
Re:HP printing for android (Score:5, Informative)
My Android phone came with an HP printer driver. It was amazing, because it auto-discovered my printer on the network (it isn't even a wi-fi printer, it's ethernet) and let me print from my phone.
You can thank Apple for creating (and releasing as OpenSource) both the Bonjour Discovery Protocol and the AirPrint driverless Printer Protocol. I think they released both around 2003 or so (actually, Bonjour is the Zeroconf Discovery Protocol that formed the basis of the AppleTalk network, which dates back to about 1987).
But that's of course from the Company that doesn't Invent anything.
However, the "phoning home" crap is all on HP.
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You realize there were other standards prior to Bonjour (Service Location Protocol for one) but Apple would force Bonjour on anyone making drivers for Mac OSX or installing iTunes on PC. Since Microsoft didn't force people to use a particular standard for Windows, anyone making drivers for Mac and had to use Bonjour would just use Bonjour on both Mac and Windows.
So, they didn't really invent anything novel, just strong armed everyone into using their standard by gatekeeping on OSX.
If you see that as a good
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There's nothing particularly clever about flinging a broadcast UDP packet onto a LAN saying "I'm a printer, this is my name and data port" etc.
And its LAN only, it doesn't work beyond the local router. The OP must have given some info to HP knowingly or otherwise for it to match his phone to his printer because these days IP address alone is no guide.
old news (Score:2)
They have been doing this for around 20 years.
Click bait headlines suck.
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We know that, but the general public does not understand the scope of what they are clicking OK to.
It's the deal (Score:3)
This again.
Long ago the entire printer industry settled into a sales model where the printer you buy is really cheap (sometimes even $0) in exchange for the user buying high-margin ink supplies. Canon, HP, Brother, Epson --- they all do it and they couldn't break that model if they tried. The market would rush to buy the $320 (loss leader) printer instead of the $820 printer (some margin) of the same specs each and every time.
At the beginning there was a technical barrier to entry of making the ink supplies that held the "deal" in place so it worked for the manufacturers. Not for long. Soon cheap alternatives came up including ink re-loaders and reversed engineered cartridges. And we all know how it goes from there. Of course they are going to try to find a way to force you to buy their ink supplies. Paper, as well.
What I find so tiresome is the endless outrage over this. People like the cheap printers but don't like the annuity that they have to pay that comes with it. But they forget what the deal was, just like a first grader getting burned on his first scam transaction in the school yard. Grow up people.
Re:It's the deal (Score:4, Informative)
Epson big tank printers are actually not bad.
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My recent experience was similar. It was just last week I finally recycled the $300+ printer I used a couple times and that Epson didn't want to talk to me about.
I was a huge Epson evangelist 20 years ago, too. My loyalty was theirs to keep, but they didn't bother.
I'm never going to buy another inkjet. It is less painful to just go to the copy shop if I need to print. And in the end, cheaper. If I need to print a lot some day, I'll go with a laser printer.
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So the teacher is supposed to just know this and find an industrial source for the solvent (since it's not in the manual and they don't sell the solvent except in the ink)?
Re: It's the deal (Score:4, Insightful)
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So if she can't go mine her own ore and make her own polymers in order to make her own inkjet printer, she's a failure?
Alternatively, if the printer needs to be cleaned with acetone every 3rd line, the manual might say so.
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I am not going to shave a yak just to get hardware working, especially when the alternative is to go to any business district and find a self service laser printer/copier.
If it is my car, or my actual desktop computer, I'll go ahead and fix it, because the alternatives are worse. But a printer? My goodness, fuck that, I'll be in the park watching the wildlife while you're fighting a machine with embedded electronics designed to encourage your repair to fail.
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I see you are familiar with the product of the modern educational systems?
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And as far as she would know, dissolve the adhesive that holds the thing together. Thgen you would quack on about how any toddler would know it must be only 84.39752% acetone (no more, no less) in water.
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So now it's not even something she should know, but a series of experiments she should try rather than spending time doing her actual job.
So, do you weave your own shirts? Grow your own food? Did you build your own house? Starting with mining the ore to make the nails and the axe to fell the timber?
Did you build a generator or do you get your power from the grid?
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I remember users throwing out 9 month old ink jet printers attached to their computer because it wouldn't print. The cartridge was almost full, the device showed plenty of ink, but the nozzles were clogged (cleaning cycles and/or alcohol wipes did nothing to unclog them). So they would go check out how much the color ink cartridge cost, see a new printer was only a few dollars more and buy the whole thing again. Then they would print a few pages and 9 months
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That's been my experience with Canon inkjet printers, and Canon inks. I've had three of them over about 15 years.
Yes, the inks cost a lot more than 3rd-party brands, but the fade rate is years, vs. months for cheaper brands.
Now, as to long-term support - the only reason I replaced #2 is that Canon didn't want to supply drivers for Windows 7, and it just wouldn't work with the XP drivers.
As long as they are used regularly (Score:2)
Failing that, the heads built into the printer clog, making the machine useless, and an expensive heap of plastic.
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But of course they 'forgot' the deal because not only were they never asked to agree to it, the manufacturers do their best to hide the terms of the deal or even it's existence from the buyer.
In fact, it's less deal than it is a combination of a (somewhat) sneaky trick and a strong sense of entitlement on the manufacturer's part.
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Basically if you install closed source software you are implicitly giving consent. They could be doing nothing, or spying on you, or deleting all of your data. You will never know. But you agreed to install their software without looking at it what it does, so you gave consent.
HP Phone Home? (Score:2)
I've used HP printers. I've noticed options to send statistics (number of pages printed and ink levels), but never anything that would indicate that HP would know I was trying to renew my passport or that I print my mom's birthday card at home. I allow my printer look for newer firmware versions, but that's it.
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Personally, I don't even let my HP talk to the internet. It keeps telling me that printing will soon be prohibited, but outside of having to push an extra button on the printer it's caused no problems in the last year. I use the driver from Debian.
N.B.: There may well be newer firmware, but I don't let my printer talk to the internet, so it will never know.
That said, that "warning message" is both extremely annoying and explicitly threatening. So I follow stories about what other printers are recommende
This is why I switched to Epson EcoTank (Score:5, Interesting)
No more cartridges, just ink. It costs much more, probably the double of HP printers, but at least I can *just print* without feeling bad for the action.
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Do the nozzles still get clogged up or does it fix that too?
Personally I switched to colour laser. They are a bit bulky but you can get the cartridges cheap now, from companies that recycle them mostly by refilling and resetting the counter chip.
This is what death of privacy looks like (Score:5, Insightful)
Is there any privacy violation egregious enough to get masses outraged into demanding change?
Re:This is what death of privacy looks like (Score:5, Insightful)
Is there any privacy violation egregious enough to get masses outraged into demanding change?
No, because people don't generally directly feel the effects of these privacy violations. Only when people lose their jobs, lose their finances and other resources, and find themselves spurned in their relationships with others and know that it's a result of these privacy violations will they really desire to force change.
HP LJ 4 (Score:3)
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I like reminiscing about when replacing the fuser only took about 30 seconds.
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Yes, I've replaced those laser units before. Usually what damages them is the machine being jolted as the polygon mirror spins up on its air bearing.
Another thing I miss about the old printers was metal paper guides. Everything now is cheap ABS plastic that is so easy to break or deform in just a little time. On the other hand, the laserjet 5si weighed about as much as my car, so I really don't miss that.
Use CUPS, block at the firewall. (Score:2)
Proprietary software devices shouldn't get Internet access unless it's on purpose. Use a VLAN and a subnet for good measure.
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There's the conundrum though, if a vendor actually provides security updates, the device might require Internet access, or in the case of things like Daktronics' current series of RGB marquee displays, they have done-away with using a proprietary application on an end-user PC, switching to a "connect to Daktronics' website, change the display, the display will phone-home and update itself" model. It may not be possible to entirely prevent the device from connecting to the Internet if it is to function opti
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If you VLAN it away naively, Bonjour stops working.
You can get around that by doing selective bridging onto the printer VLAN, or by doing Bonjour proxy. Alternatively you can run a proper printer daemon on the regular device network that prints to the printer using standard IPP.
Either way, it is a pain.
Software Engineer, or English Major? (Score:3)
One has to ask when the submission makes Garrison Keillor look the soul of brevity.
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"And that's the news from Lake Privacy-Be-Gone, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
HP..need i say more (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the same company that got taken to court for pushed firmware updates that bricked your printer is it had compatible cartridges installed. HP and Lexmark are the worst offenders for expensive cartridge shenanigans.
Stick with Canon or Brother for low end stuff.
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This problem began when they started selling the printers below cost under the idea of profiting from the ink. I wouldn't be surprised if some company started giving away crappy cars if you sign-up for an exclusive maintenance contract.
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Isn't that pretty much what a car lease is?
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Never buying any Lexmark printer for our organization ever again. We purchased a few hundred (not by me) and several had bad imaging units out of the box. Large white streaks top to bottom of the page when printing.
Contacted Lexmark support, explained the problem, and was told we needed to send over copies of print diagnostic pages for their "engineers" to look at. Which I did.
Kept pestering them about getting replacement units because these were still under warranty and never got a response. Sent a fina
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Got burned by Canon as well. Bought an entry level LBP7110CW because it was "supported under linux". Installed the driver, yep, it worked out of the box. A few months later an Ubuntu update broke the driver, and Canon support told me to sod off ("we don't support linux"). Hasn't worked under linux ever since.
Last Canon printer ever.
I went into the Control Panel ... (Score:2)
... Settings for my Brother printer and deselected:
ControlCenter4
Brother Industries, Ltd. (“Brother”) uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”) in the Brother software(s) that is/are specified above (“Software”). Google Analytics collects traffic data using “cookies.” The data collected is used to analyze and better understand how you use the Software. For more information about how Google handles your information, please see
.
By using Google Analytics, Brother collects traffic data that are non-personally identifiable information (“Traffic Data”) such as your Brother device model and how you use and navigate through the Software. Brother will use the Traffic Data solely for the improvement of the Software or any other products/services of Brother, and Brother’s marketing/research activities, product planning or any other related activities for the benefit of Brother’s customers.
If you agree to provide your Traffic Data to Brother and Google through Google Analytics, please tick the check box “Send Information” below. If you choose not to provide your Traffic Data, please do not tick the checkbox. You will still be able to use all the functions of the Software even if you choose not to provide your Traffic Data. If you tick the checkbox below, any other user of the Software that is installed on your device will be deemed to have agreed to provide his/her Traffic Data to Brother and Google.
Colour mne dumb... (Score:2)
...but how does Google Analytics get involved with a printer driver?
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...but how does Google Analytics get involved with a printer driver?
By me or you clicking on the check mark that allows this.
Here's the land mines:
- Google Analytics collects traffic data ... (but what about Google Analytics?)
- The data collected is used to analyze and better understand how you use the Software
- For more information about how Google handles your information (it's "them" not "us")
- By using Google Analytics, Brother collects traffic data
- Brother will use the Traffic Data solely for the improvement of
- Brother’s marketing/research activities (Google Ad
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...but how does Google Analytics get involved with a printer driver?
You didn't think Google came up with the idea of Google Cloud Print out of the goodness of their hearts, did you?
They want to collect every possible bit of information about every person they can, then use what they learn about you to make money. That is their business model, after all.
old news (Score:2)
This has been going on for years.
Buy (Score:2)
One that just prints.
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Care to tell us which magical device that would be?
It bet it comes with ink you can refill, too.
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2. One with a search function for "printers" that allows brands to be selected.
3. Don't select the printer brand that sends data.
HP printer drivers hav always been crap (Score:3)
Way back when I remember trying to install a printer driver from CD-ROM. The installation process proceeded to dump 300 MB of data on my system (a large amount of data at the time, making the "printer driver" larger than any application install) which consisted of drivers for basically every HP printer ever made, plus a bunch of crapware (big, complicated application for checking the ink level, things like that). And it wanted to update every other week (which was another 100 MB installer).
Fake gateway (Score:2)
HP still thinks that phoning home is useful? (Score:2)
I haven't done much with iptables to log, block, or otherwise mess with outbound packets but maybe I should start, eh? I could see filling out all the forms and then blocking anything coming from the printer's MAC address from leaving the LAN. Unless they have something hiding in a driver or the printer that prevents it from operating unless it's allowed to phone home with your registration information, etc. -- which, IMHO, would be the Kiss Of Death to any future sales -- all they'd know is that I bought a
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HP LaserJet 1050a + hplip + USB cable WFM since 2008. Only issue I have has come up since I moved back to the US, where I can't buy model 301 ink cartridges for it in the stores--have to order them online from a European distributor at about twice the cost or just load up on them whenever I go back to visit. Fortunately, one set of 2 (1 colour and 1 black) cartridges will last me 6+ months, so I got a 2-year supply pretty easily last time I was in Stockholm. Really irritating that HP sell a printer and ink
This guy is great (Score:2)
"...I wanted to use the extremely convenient feature where the printer scans a document and sends it to you via email, but then I got scared that HP would purloin my email address, associate it with my printing data, and ship this information over to an online ad retargeting platform. I’m not a lawyer and I can’t be bothered to properly parse their privacy policy to understand whether this technically falls under “product usage” or “sharing with third-party services”, or
This is a non-issue. (Score:2)
Clearly someone not too technically adept has a personal beef with HP skewed by a distorted anecdotal experience.
1) I don't buy inkjets for myself, but every HP printer (inkjet, laser or otherwise) has had an option to not install "Instant Ink" or similar unnecessary components. Sometimes you need to check "Advanced Setup" at the beginning but anyone with the slightest IT experience knows to do this already.
2) You can always download the "basic driver" from HP's site and install that instead.
3) If you don't
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Are you my twin? I mean, you nailed it. ... "DITTO". Including the post...
! inklet, buy a laser, just the driver please, etc.
Just
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1) I don't buy inkjets for myself, but every HP printer (inkjet, laser or otherwise) has had an option to not install "Instant Ink" or similar unnecessary components. Sometimes you need to check "Advanced Setup" at the beginning but anyone with the slightest IT experience knows to do this already.
Well that makes it all better. Even though the vast majority of people don't have any "IT experience" at all.
One permanent fix (Score:2)
Is not to use the installer that comes with it or the download for the OS. Use the Windows server based drivers, which contain the INFs specific for the printer and configure it the hard way.
Here's a sane article on this topic... (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope Robert Heaton gets the help he needs. Medication, meditation, electroshock therapy, whatever it takes.
The only way to be sure... mostly. (Score:2)
Take off and nu... no, just kidding. There ought to be some setting or configuration on the router that prevents the printer from sending anything out of your LAN. That's if you can trust your router. Who can trust anything? Might as well just send nudes to HP. If you're in a situation that requires the printer to be on the Internet, I'd get sophisticated about the firewall. I wouldn't trust the click-box to do what it says if I actually cared. Added bonus? You might find them really being up to no
Nobody has been able to answer this: (Score:2)
Linux (Score:2)
The offered printer drivers and apps aren't going to work with my system anyway. I just unbox the HP printer, plug it in and it works.
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Yep, hplip FTW.
Can you block this stuff from being exfiltrated? (Score:2)
Seems like an opportunity for your Pi-Hole to block this sort of thing from leaving your network. Does anyone know if it does, or could?
'modern' hp printers (Score:2)
I wont defend hp for shady activity but with most people using a smart phone what does the author expect printers are for real computers only?.
As to hp ink service that sends data back the cartridges are bigger than the ones you can buy the hp printer i own i recon it saved $170 usd based on the used cartridges printed output compared with buying idiot cartridges for the same page output.
While an idiot printer is great i think thr reinvention of printing is keeping it relevant
Do try and keep up (Score:3)
Current best practice business management obliges you to see the customer as an enemy to be defeated and subjected to lifelong extortion. The Mafia had it right all along with their protection rackets. You sell the customer some trifling piece of hardware and get them on to a subscription of some sort. Eventually you should be able to up-sell them to the point where their employer pays their income directly into your affiliate bank and you actually own them. Remember "The customer is the enemy and must be destroyed completely".
Good try, but ultimately futile (Score:2)
I don't buy HP (Score:2)
...anymore
Many years ago, my wife bought an HP inkjet printer.
Every time you printed a document, it left a process running.
She had to reboot periodically to clear them off the machine.
I installed software updates as they came in from HP,
and in all the years that we owned the printer,
they never fixed their driver.
Drama Queen! (Score:2)
HP Drivers are Bloatware (Score:2)
I've been on the technical side of IT for over 30 years and have dealt with all manner of printers. Here's the sad truth - HP makes good printers from a hardware perspective, but their drivers are bloated to the point where I stopped buying or recommending their printers.
I recall having to run an HP-supplied cleanup utility if I wanted to completely uninstall their drivers, and the utility had 4 levels of uninstall. Which basically amounted to "Would you like to (i) Uninstall, (ii) Really Uninstall, (iii) R
Re:Ok... (Score:5, Informative)
You have to click on the link to the full article. Based on the concrete info in TFA, this is definitely sneaky. Although it is buried in the legalese.
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You'll have to RTFA....
Re:Ok... (Score:4, Funny)
You'll have to RTFA....
Do what now? That's crazy talk.
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And totally unnecessary. Everybody knows that you never use the drivers from the manufacturer, you always use the drivers from the OS. There are way more engineers working on the OS drivers than on the manufacturer's driver. This is true even for niche OSes.
Re:Ok... (Score:4, Informative)
It's poorly written but it's true.
Canon also tries to harvets your data with their printers. I returned one because I didn't agree to the data collection and it wouldn't allow me to use advertised functions, of which no mention was made about that requirement either on the box or in the product description before I ordered.
The last I checked, Epson didn't require data collection but they have an in-built obsolescence. After you have printed a certain number of pages, the printer will cease working. The reason? Because there is an "overflow" pad/sponge inside the printer that is meant to absorb excess ink such as when doing edge to edge printing, nozzle cleaning and such. Instead of having a sensor that checks that pad, it just has a maximum print count at which time their printers stop working, even when the pad is almost totally clean or if the pad has been replaced with a new one. At that point they expect you to buy a whole new printer, all because a one cent sponge may or may not be saturated.
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And you can't tell that your customer, let him review the data if he so pleases before you siphon it off?
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They sell me a printer. They have no right to metadata unless I open a support case.
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Probably. But how do you know? We are informed that the printer contains automatic recognizers to recognize, and refuse to print, money. But is that ALL it recognizes? How do you know?
Corporations don't have a great record for honest communication, so why do you believe what they tell you when nobody external can check it?
The best guess is that you are right. But, IIUC, the legal agreement says that they can copy anything.