Aaron Computer Rental Firm Spies On Users

An anonymous reader writes with word from Yahoo news of a lawsuit "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. The manager tried to repossess the computer because he mistakenly believed the couple hadn't finished paying for it, the couple said. Brian Byrd, 26, said the manager showed him a picture of Byrd using the computer — taken by the computer's webcam. The image was shot with the help of spying software, which the lawsuit contends is made by North East, Pa.-based Designerware LLC and is installed on all Aaron's rental computers."

Comments

On the motherboard?

[Jonah Hex]

PC Rental Agent includes components soldered into the computer's motherboard or otherwise physically attached to the PC's electronics, the lawsuit said. It therefore cannot be uninstalled and can only be deactivated using a wand, the suit said.

Seriously, they had to go with a hardware/software solution, when they could have very easily done it in software only? And what does that do to the warranty from the original manufacturer, soldering new parts into your motherboard usually voids those.

Also, given the demographic of people who "Rent to Own", I'd hate to see some of those webcam shots...

HEX

Re:Electrical tape over the webcam

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy to solve - just run Linux, and there's pretty much no chance of the webcam working even if you wanted it to ;)

Re:from TFA: owning it outright vs OS

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Bad news, I'm afraid. I just sent an HTCPCP PROPFIND request to your coffee maker and recieved a response code: "418 I'm a teapot". On the plus side, that is fully standard compliant. On the minus side, you'd better get ready to like earl grey.

Re:Whoops

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

You had plywood? I had to steal napkins from the dining hall, chew them into pulp and then place a layer of pulp underneath my hard, threadbare pallet, so that my uneasy tossing and turning would press it against the concrete floor and produce enough medium-density fiberboard to support my 8086.

Re:Whoops

[wmbetts]

Personally anytime I'm on my mbp I just sit there nude while I program. If anyone spies on me they deserve what they get!