Wednesday, September 25th, 2024
EDITOR’S NOTE: WARNING – HEWLETT PACKARD (HP) PRINTERS
A few months ago, I bought a Hewlett-Packard (HP) printer. Somehow in what I thought was registering the printer with HP I became embroiled in the HP Instant Ink program. What I did not know was that this program allows HP to monitor your printer via the internet and record how many pages you print — and who knows what else — and you get charged for each printed page, and have to pay a fee depending on how many pages you have printed. Ostensibly, this is about being sent ink, but I never got any ink. However, when I needed ink I discovered I was faced with a fee of $36.95, based on how many pages I had printed. When I asked how they could possibly know that I learned about the monitoring. I also discovered that I had been involved in the Instant Ink Program when I thought I was registering my printer for its warranty. I immediately asked to be removed from this program, only to discover that they controlled my printer and I could no longer print unless I agreed to re-enroll in the Instant Ink Program. I want to warn any reader that if you buy an HP printer you may find yourself embroiled in this scam. As I was writing this I thought that I couldn’t be the only person who has had this experience and searched to see. It turns out that Hewlett-Packard Instant Ink has been the focus of multiple class action lawsuits.
The internet of everything is very convenient as you will always have the ink you need and your refrigerator will order food that is running low. Total transparency and subscriptions make life easy so you can focus on the important things in life like your World of Warcraft competition. The promise of AI is that these services will learn, will become more aware of your preferences and habits so every need is fulfilled so long as you maintain your subscriptions. Let it expire and the service or device will cease to function even though you purchased it.
This is part of the societal trend of normalizing fraud and theft. Software as a service is an early example of this. You can buy a product but the corporations don’t believe that it’s actually yours. They are just allowing you to use it. We continue to allow this fraud and theft at our own peril. So, who will stop this fraud and theft: Trump or Harris? Don’t hold your breath that either will help you. Both are bought by corporate masters. Different corporate masters, but masters nonetheless.