Are Lexmark's printers spying on you?

Lexmark, makers of printers and scanners, has been caught monitoring users' printer, scanning, and ink cartridge usage.  Apparently, users on the comp.periphs.printers newsgroup found that the Lexmark installation software embeds itself in the registry and monitors printer activity via a file located at c:\program_files\lexmark500.  While Lexmark originally denied the allegations, the reality of the spyware is pretty straight-forward, and they have come forward to admit their wrongdoing.  Better late than never?  It's not clear what they are monitoring, though: Lexmark say they're just tracking printer and cartridge usage, but the registration information and packets being sent say otherwise.

[Fernando @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

What's the deal with that picture of a phone ?

[Bobby @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

sue sue sue sue sue sue sue:)

[JJ @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

but why the picture of the sky handset???

[TurtleD @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Picture of a cell phone?

Anyways, I think that's shitty of them, with all the spyware and intrusion on our PCs. Did they have any user agreement letting users know that this information is being sent? If they denied it first, then admitted to wrongdoing, I assume they didn't let users know. Isn't that being concidered illegal (for spammers, malwarers) to install something on a user's computer without their knowledge?

I won't buy from Lexmark, bad seed.

[Bobby @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

sue sue sue sue sue sue sue:)

[Fabien Peyrot @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

lawer that s it

[Bobby @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

sorry, i dont why that is posted twice by me

[Sebhelyesfarku @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

sue sue sue sue sue sue sue

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Ummm... phone? Maybe "Lexmark printer's phone home?"

[Vince Veneziani @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Whatever. Us Mac users yawn in your face...I dig my Lexmark all in one thank you.

[Jack Lang @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I think it's important to REGULARLY scan yourself for your spyware pals!

[Celsdogg @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

So, on top of making garbage products, they spy on you and the company continually lies to its customers?

I'm glad I came back to HP. . .

[gunzz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

i have already told you guys about Lexmark's poor quality in a separate email (which you failed to post)...here's the link to check out how much they spend on warranty claims....http://www.warrantyweek.com/...10% of revenue on claims is criminal...wait, they are criminal so it all makes sense now!

[Tracy Milburn @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I was confused about the previous comments about the 10% of revenue on warranty claims. I thought it was implying that they don't spend much, so I went and looked at the data and now I understand. Bottom of this page: http://www.warrantyweek.com/archive/ww20040112.html

There may be a more recent survey, but in the Top Ten Computer Peripheral Warranty Providers, Lexmark is #1 with 11% accruals as percent of product saes. Next closest is InFocus Corp at 3.5%. There is a 2%, and bunches of 1.n% and 0.n%.

Actually, that number is the highest for all IT categories on the page. OUCH. That does make it sound like they have a quality issue.

[Tracy Milburn @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I was confused about the previous comments about the 10% of revenue on warranty claims. I thought it was implying that they don't spend much, so I went and looked at the data and now I understand. Bottom of this page: http://www.warrantyweek.com/archive/ww20040112.html

There may be a more recent survey, but in the Top Ten Computer Peripheral Warranty Providers, Lexmark is #1 with 11% accruals as percent of product saes. Next closest is InFocus Corp at 3.5%. There is a 2%, and bunches of 1.n% and 0.n%.

Actually, that number is the highest for all IT categories on the page. OUCH. That does make it sound like they have a quality issue.

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I think the phone thing referred to in post #1 is a Treo 650 ad on the page, just to the right of the article.

[Rob Pemberton @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

You are given a chance to opt-out while installing the printer driver. If you just click through everything without reading the prompts then I guess you may be surprised and go whining in a newsgroup about it. Watch what the hell you are doing or you will end up with something far worse than this.

[Steven L @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Rob, it's a sad sad world when you have to explicitly opt-out of these ridiculous type of spyware. All these type of "options" should require an opt-in and not a "check here if you DON'T want to receive/install", etc.

That's like going to buy your next gadget at some store and you are automatically signed up for that pesky 'extended insurance' unless you explicitly say you don't want it.


Steven

Rob Pemberton says:

> You are given a chance to opt-out while
> installing the printer driver. If you just
> click through everything without reading the
> prompts then I guess you may be surprised and
> go whining in a newsgroup about it. Watch what
> the hell you are doing or you will end up with
> something far worse than this.

[fungo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

HP has used similar monitoring software on at least some units. There's an opt-out applet, but it's well hidden -- and it registers you in order to opt you out, so HP always gets at least that much info! Users are not asked during installation, or if they are, it's hidden extremely well. Not difficult; the "minimum" install on my last HP printer was over 300MB.

But it's not just printers. The situation with PC games is even worse. The supposed "anti-cheating" software PunkBuster, used by an increasing number of online games, requires players to agree to license terms that basically give the company the right to read any file on the their computer. It's a thinly-veiled copy-protection measure, and there's no opt-out; if you want to play on the majority of servers, you gotta let PB spy on you. (The hot new Half-Life 2 seems to go even further, but I haven't got detailed info as yet.)

Expect to see this trend continue, unless we start getting REALLY militant about what we're willing to have loaded on our computers.

......... fungo.

[Bob Matthews @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I never install from the CD that comes with a printer. I always go to the web site and find the latest update in a "driver only" configuration. And the only Lexmark I ever bought was a portable to use with a laptop running Windows 3.1 (this was about 10 years ago). It never worked properly, their tech support dragged their feet for so long that the store wouldn't take the printer back, then gave up with the problem unsolved but would not take the printer back, either.
Looks like not much has changed at Lexmark in 10 years.

[Emma @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I have a Lexmark All-In-One and it absolutely SUCKS. The quality of prints is mediocre at best and the machine takes so long to print anything that it would be quicker writing it out by hand!
I was thinking about looking for something better anyway and reading this page has made up my mind! The Lexmark must go!

[Mark Verrills @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I hope that they're not spying on me because I regularly scan my cock and balls by sitting on my Lexmark flat-bed scanner. Oh well, they'll soon learn to look away.

Don't laugh, it's the only way I can get a decent image of my Stinker's Ridge.

[neil @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

can they use the info to stop your printer printing?
does anybody know how Lexmark stop your printer cartridge working even when there is ink in it & the nozzles aren't blocked - & how i can get round it?
my feeling is it's related to this thread.
(i've refilled it & unblocked it, & taken it out several times - only the black cart., but both stopped working completely. the colour one worked again when i told the printer it was "new", but then stopped again)
been on to their tech. "help" who told me to buy a new cartridge

[spyware removal @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Come on people. Not all spyware activities are bad. Usually reputable companies have some so called spying activities just because to provide better service for you.

FOr example http://www.2-spyware.com describes clearly most know spywares severity scale.

So even if lexmark is SPYING on you, its just because they want to provide better service and better software for you.

[charles kinsey @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I have two Lexmark printers the 2600 and the X1100printer/scanner/copier both suck and before the ink was 1/2 gone the nozzles clogged setting me up to lay out 40$ for each printer again . No way the 2600 goes in the trash , the X1100 is now just a scanner, and as far as the spyware issue it's just one more reason not to buy Lexmark, I do not except any excuse for spyware including this sites failed attempt to auto download avenue A on my PC .Im outa here.

[remove spyware @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

ha, besides spyware infections over the internet, hardware will be spying on me:)

[spyware removal @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I believe such spying activities will be used by companies on their employees, thus not being such a huge problem as the usual spyware threats are. Anyway, if you think your boss may be looking at what you're doing, check out http://www.spywaredb.com anti-spyware resource.