14 DAY TRIAL // Allegations that surfaced earlier this week indicated that HP might be deploying spyware on users’ computers and not only slow down the systems but also collect their data without consent.
But in a statement today, HP says there’s no such thing happening on their systems, and the only data collection that takes place is completely anonymously and enabled after users give their consent.
HP VP of Customer Experience Mike Nash told LaptopMag that HP Touchpoint Analytics, a service that was enabled recently following a driver update, only collects hardware information just in case something goes wrong.
Furthermore, the data never leaves the computer unless users specifically opted to share logs with HP during the initial screen, in which case the collected information is only useful once you need technical support and engineers need to remotely access your system.
On the other hand, if you do decide to share your logs with HP, everything is submitted anonymously with no personal data leaving the machine, HP says. This should help improve performance, fix bugs, and deliver updates for errors hitting a particular computer model.
Similar telemetry services in place since 2014
While claims that HP might be spying on users made the headlines this week, Nash explains that a service with a similar purpose but with a different name has been around since 2014, so all the allegations pretty much come from nowhere.
“HP Touchpoint Analytics is a service we have offered since 2014 as part of HP Support Assistant. It anonymously collects diagnostic information about hardware performance. No data is shared with HP unless access is expressly granted. Customers can opt-out or uninstall the service at any time,” HP said.
“HP Touchpoint Analytics was recently updated and there were no changes to privacy settings as part of this update. We take customer privacy very seriously and act in accordance with a strict policy, available here.”
If you just can’t take HP’s word for granted and don’t want to have the service running on your system, all you have to do is to uninstall the Touchpoint Analytics client by going to Windows 10 Settings app > Apps > Apps & features > HP Touchpoint Analytics Client > Uninstall.