HP appears to have followed in the footsteps of Lenovo by pushing “spyware” on unsuspecting users. This comes in the form of something called the HP Touchpoint Analytics Service, which was recently included in a system update for all HP made computers.
Users over the internet have been complaining about the tool being installed without consent, or even notifying owners of the device. Instead, it appeared one day and began using system resources to collect user telemetry.
The idea behind the HP Touchpoint Analytics Service is apparently to act as customer service software. Allowing HP to deploy additional tools and services as needed. According to a statement, it only collects harmless information like PC hardware and performance related information. Not exactly the privacy invading software that Lenovo was caught handing out.
What makes this a problem is that customers are reporting that the Touchpoint Analytics constantly run in the background. Resulting in a lot of older and less powerful computers running slowly due to a lack of system resources.
Fortunately, it’s easy enough to disable the Touchpoint Analytics by removing it from the system and opting out from the programme. Maybe next time remember to let people know what’s going on before causing a panic.
[Source: Laptop Mag]
