Lexmark denies spyware allegations

Stan Beer
Thursday, 02 December 2004 05:17

IT Industry - Development

Printer manufacturer Lexmark has taken the unusual step of posting a public notice about its customer tracking methods on its corporate website in response to spyware allegations raised by a US customer.

Lexmark admitted its Lexmark Connect program monitors the printing habits of customers via software installed on their computers, but denied that it uses spyware.

Lexmark put a link on the front page of its website to the public notice about Lexmark Connect after a customer complaint posted on the online newsgroup comp.periphs.printers was picked up by media outlets in the US and the UK.

The author of the usenet article, "Lexmark printer users beware of spyware," claimed a trojan had installed itself on his computer as part of the printer installation process. The author, who identified himself as "Commander", said he had not been asked or notified prior to the software installing itself.

"This Lexmark Trojan was programmed to monitor my use of the printer by way of data collected from two DLLs in the c:program fileslexmark500 folder. The Trojan would then send information on printer usage, including types of print activity, scanning activity, OCR activity, etc back to a hidden URL at 30 day intervals," said the post.

"When I called and spoke with Lexmark support, they denied all knowledge of any such program, and suggested I had somehow been infected by a virus. When I challenged them with the facts, they
ultimately acknowledged that this was indeed activity tracking software that reported printer and cartridge use back to them for "survey" purposes."

A spokesperson for Lexmark Australia said that while it has been tracking printer and cartridge use on certain printer models since 2004, it does so only if customers agree.

"The information collected is operating information that will allow Lexmark to understand our customers printing habits and needs better, such as the number of pages printed, amount of ink used, and how frequently product features are used," said the spokesman.

"It is also important to note that customers who previously signed up to participate have the option at any time to discontinue participation," he said.

In the notice posted on its US website, Lexmark said users are asked whether they would like to participate in the monitoring program during the printer installation process.

However, there are no references to the Lexmark Connect program in the user manuals for the affected printers.

Lexmark insisted that the program does not harvest personal information about customers. However, during installation users are prompted to fill in a registration form including their name and the product serial number.

Affected products are the Z810, X5200, P910, P6200, and X7100 series printers. Users wishing to opt out of the program can do so using the Lexmark Solutions Centre menu of their printer.

Sarah Stokely