Dell To Techs: Don't Help Customers Remove Spyware

Alien54 writes "Well, more exactly, be advised that if you are giving a Dell for Xmas, not only will it probably come preloaded with spyware, but their tech support lines will refuse to tell users how to remove it, and will not give people advice on where to find some good tools to remove it. As seen in the latest newsletter from SpyWareInfo, Dell sent an internal memo to its tech support minions which says in part: 'NOTICE: Use of spyware removal software may conflict with user license agreements of other applications installed on your system. Please consult your user license agreements for further information. Dell does not endorse the use of spyware removal software and cannot provide support on these products.' This means we do not take callers to download.com or doxdesk.com, nor do we recommend spyware removal programs, nor do we advise callers on the use of spyware removal programs. This includes using phrases "We don't support the removal of spyware, but I use..."'" (Read on below.Update: 12/03 06:36 GMT by T : And for an update, too.) "Now isn't that just nifty. Several folks in the antispyware/antivirus community have signed an open letter to Dell Inc. asking them to retract this possibly foolish and misguided policy. That letter is located at here." Update: 12/03 06:36 GMT Mike Healan, editor of spywareinfo.com, writes "The original posting is misleading. Dell is absolutely not installing or preinstalling spyware and the headline gives the impression that it is."

Comments

Re:Build one for them....

[calebtucker]

Yeah, I told my dad to get a Dell just because I didn't want to be the one responsible whenever anything goes wrong.

Heh, he kinda got mad at him when I built a computer for my sister. I finally had to tell him my reasoning: I can't drop everything and drive over whenever something goes wrong (My dad's comp has more important uses than my sister's, which is just used for IM'ing, P2P'ing, and accumulating various spyware)

isn't it clear to everyone?

[abolith]

Dell is unsing the spyware for its own ends. Afterall XP spys on you why shouldn't dell get in on the act?

Does it really matter?

[VampireD]

It doesn't mean jack, surf the web for 5 minutes and you have spyware.

nuff said.

Re:Shows us what trusted computing will bring

[cyt0plas]

Trusted Computing Will Not:

Do jack after it's reverse-engineered, and crammed into an emulator. All that is then necessary is the extraction of an approved key. Emulate any hardware which has "trusted" drivers.

To combat this kind of attack, software producers will almost certainly switch to some form of watermarking, to allow them to blacklist any compromised keys. Heck, DivX already watermarks all decoded output.

One of the nice things about an emulator is that you can do very fun things with it. Among other things, I've patched Bochs to allow me to make a script for a particular program, with instructions. When it reaches a certain point in memory, it ignores the instructions present in the program, and runs the one in the script. Any CRC check will pass, but if I re-write the watermarking code, effectivly removing it, the program will not be able to tell that it has ever been modified, making it impossible for the program to tell it has been modified. And yeah, the program is encrypted, but the emulator memory can be dumped, and the program extracted. Once it's decrypted, neutering it is easy.

I have a friend who is one of the engineers working on "Trusted Computing". TCPA will fail; we will help it happen.