HP Printers try to send data back to HP
In the printer industry, HP can be said to be the dominant level, software engineer Robert Heaton recently found that HP printers will pass some user data back to HP, the default is turned on, and the hidden is quite deep. It has been found that during the installation of the HP printer, there is a “Data Collection Notice & Settings” that send data back to HP. HP has stated that it will try to collect the relevant printing status of the user and send it back to HP, the goal is to improve advertising and user experience.
However, HP deliberately hides the choice of returning data types. If you are not particularly careful and technically savvy, it is almost impossible to find, and this “feature” is enabled by default. They inadvertently handed over their relevant data to HP.
In summary, HP wants its printer to collect all kinds of data that a reasonable person would never expect it to. This includes metadata about your devices, as well as information about all the documents that you print, including timestamps, number of pages, and the application doing the printing (HP state that they do stop short of looking at the contents of your documents). From the HP privacy policy, linked to from the setup program:
Product Usage Data – We collect product usage data such as pages printed, print mode, media used, ink or toner brand, file type printed (.pdf, .jpg, etc.), application used for printing (Word, Excel, Adobe Photoshop, etc.), file size, time stamp, and usage and status of other printer supplies. We do not scan or collect the content of any file or information that might be displayed by an application.
Device Data – We collect information about your computer, printer and/or device such as operating system, firmware, amount of memory, region, language, time zone, model number, first start date, age of device, device manufacture date, browser version, device manufacturer, connection port, warranty status, unique device identifiers, advertising identifiers and additional technical information that varies by product.
HP printers collect data about all the documents that produce the document. Basically all the types of documents you print (txt/doc/jpg/pdf, etc.), timestamps, document volumes, usage reports, and more.
