Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110504/ap_on_re_us/us_rental_computer_spyware#mwpphu-container


Wow that is pretty bad. I knew that is was possible through spyware etc. to look at someone through their own webcam, but a business doing it?

I bought a laptop off my brother for $100.00 that he paid $700.00 for last year from Rent-A-Center. He sold it to me cheap because it didn't have the start up discs and he couldn't reformat it to get a bad virus off it. I plan on either buying a new copy of windows 7 or calling the manufacturer up and seeing if they can help me out. I wonder if it is possible for them to still spy on me once it is reformatted? I mean if it had something hardwired to the motherboard, couldn't it still spy even if it is reformatted?

Also I love this guy's post:

if they are takeing my picture now they will see a 47 yr old 450 pound naked fat guy living in his moms basement eating a stick of butter.....enjoy, im keeping the laptop, its covered in DNA anyway, you dont want it back...trust me

Chances are that it was all done in software. I can't imagine a rent-to-own place spends the overhead for each individual computer to get the kind of hardware modifications needed to actually do this so that it didn't have to go through an OS. I seem to remember a school that got in trouble for doing someone similar some time ago with laptops they supplied to students.

The first thing I always do even if I buy a brand new computer from a manufacturer is wipe the hard drive and put my own copy of whatever OS I need it for at the time. I don't need any fingers in my OS other than my own and the developer's. The bloatware packaged on most big box computers nowadays is really incentive enough to do that anyway. "No, I would not like a trial of ZoneAlarm, McAfee, and Norton all installed by default at once. If I wanted my new computer to run as well as my old one did, I wouldn't have bought it to begin with."

Sounds like good advice. Probably better to start fresh and then start adding stuff so you know what is on your machine.

The best way is to build your own computer rather than buying the big box computers. It's cheaper too.

But if you DO get a computer, for example your very cheap one, reformatting it first thing is best.

Melissia wrote:The best way is to build your own computer rather than buying the big box computers. It's cheaper too.

But if you DO get a computer, for example your very cheap one, reformatting it first thing is best.

I keep seeing you say this and my friends tell me to do it as well, but how difficult is it to build a PC? I can install a video card, but I haven't done much more than that.

It's not THAT difficult, there's plenty of tutorials online for it.

The hardest part isn't putting it together, but rather, getting the right parts you need. Video cards are kinda confusing to me at any rate.

Melissia wrote:It's not THAT difficult, there's plenty of tutorials online for it.

The hardest part isn't putting it together, but rather, getting the right parts you need. Video cards are kinda confusing to me at any rate.

That was what one of my friends told me as well. He says you have to choose your parts wisely and know that they are all compatible. He says it is easy to buy the stuff you want and not have enough spots to put everything.

I had a mother board go out years ago and I couldn't simply replace it with another because everything else wasn't compatible with most of the current motherboards.