FTC Halts Spying By Rent-To-Own Computer Companies

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The Federal Trade Commission says it reached a settlement with seven rent-to-own companies that keeps them from spying on you. :eek:

Seven rent-to-own companies and a software design firm have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they spied on consumers using computers that consumers rented from them, capturing screenshots of confidential and personal information, logging their computer keystrokes, and in some cases taking webcam pictures of people in their homes, all without notice to, or consent from, the consumers. The software design firm collected the data that enabled rent-to-own stores to track the location of rented computers without consumers’ knowledge according to the FTC complaint.
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i dont get it.. you can BUY a new computer for around $300 that would do 99% of what 95% of the people would need
 
kattana said:
i dont get it..
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Surely most of you work in the tech field or something closely related right? Has your experience not taught you that quite a few folks out there are completely PC illiterate? I have employees I explain things several times to, even write them out detailed step by step instructions and they still manage to not understand sometimes. It used to amaze me until I just accepted that there are just people who will not get it.
 
Hah. I just wrote a short essay about this this morning for an I.T. ethics class.

Seemed like a neat story that [H] would pick up on.
 
Rent to own people are crazy. "$100 a month for 18 months and you can keep this cute little notebook."
 
kattana said:
i dont get it.. you can BUY a new computer for around $300 that would do 99% of what 95% of the people would need
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Gotta have the $300 first. You'll be surprised how many can't even save that up.
 
schizrade said:
This x1000
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Yours times x1000

So......many......stupid......people.

And before you starting talking about people who are forced to live paycheck to paycheck...there's a REASON...because of scams like rent-to-own, and Paycheck advance places.
 
DogChainX said:
Yours times x1000

So......many......stupid......people.

And before you starting talking about people who are forced to live paycheck to paycheck...there's a REASON...because of scams like rent-to-own, and Paycheck advance places.
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.. and our corporate and governmental overlords ..
 
Wait...not 1 but 7 companies took a look at this idea and said, 'Hey, this seems like a totally legit way to get info!'

Srsly, wtf people?
 
How to explain Rent-to-Owners.

Think about how stupid and ignorant the average person is that you deal with, now realize that almost half the population is dumber.
 
Omegas said:
How to explain Rent-to-Owners.

Think about how stupid and ignorant the average person is that you deal with, now realize that almost half the population is dumber.
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.. and the other half of the population capitalizes off of their stupidity and vulnerability ..
 
Friends don't let friends rent-to-own.

1ACX06-The-Son-Also-Draws.avi_001270812.jpg
 
Starcrossed said:
.. and the other half of the population capitalizes off of their stupidity and vulnerability ..
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And somewhere in the mix are honorable people YELLING at the stupid people to wise-up, but they KEEP DOING IT.

You can lead a horse to water...
 
A lot of this is just today's culture. "Indulge, you deserve it!" "Have it for just $20 a week!" "Have what everyone else does for once!" It takes a strong mind to ignore all of that, and we've all slipped up sometimes either by credit or loan. Rent to own is the way to get people who can't quality for either or those
 
Ryokurin said:
A lot of this is just today's culture. "Indulge, you deserve it!" "Have it for just $20 a week!" "Have what everyone else does for once!" It takes a strong mind to ignore all of that, and we've all slipped up sometimes either by credit or loan. Rent to own is the way to get people who can't quality for either or those
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The wealthy can be much more self-indulgent without running the risk of being castrated for it.
 
Globox said:
remember folks, reformat when you get one of these
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Won't work on all versions. Some computers actually had hardware installed for GPS purposes that worked even when the computer was off. Others incorporated Intel's vPro to keep you from getting rid of it.
 
Starcrossed said:
I think it is hardly fair to blame the poor and reasonably downtrodden for "Keeping up with the Joneses." That was actually my point.
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And that was mine. If I can afford a $15K car outright, pay cash, and only pay $15K, while my neighbor can't afford it, yet leases it for $280/month, and pays out over $23K over 5 years, and he's considerably worse off in life for trying....is it my fault or his?

Personal responsibility ;)
 
None of this surprises me,these rent to own outfits are like legalized loan sharks,taking advantage of low income consumers by charging them twice what a product is worth. If the FTC really got seriuos about investigating them,most of them would be out of business.
 
DogChainX said:
And that was mine. If I can afford a $15K car outright, pay cash, and only pay $15K, while my neighbor can't afford it, yet leases it for $280/month, and pays out over $23K over 5 years, and he's considerably worse off in life for trying....is it my fault or his?

Personal responsibility ;)
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We weren't really talking about this type of scenario. We were talking about the type of person that might typically rent a laptop from some crap company, which mostly cater to poor people.
 
Starcrossed said:
We weren't really talking about this type of scenario. We were talking about the type of person that might typically rent a laptop from some crap company, which mostly cater to poor people.
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Ok. If I can afford a $500 laptop outright, pay cash, and only pay $500, while my neighbor can't afford it, yet rents it for $50/month, and pays out over $3K over 5 years, and he's considerably worse off in life for trying....is it my fault or his?

Personal responsibility, though I don't care at ALL for people who own these types of places.
 
DogChainX said:
Ok. If I can afford a $500 laptop outright, pay cash, and only pay $500, while my neighbor can't afford it, yet rents it for $50/month, and pays out over $3K over 5 years, and he's considerably worse off in life for trying....is it my fault or his?

Personal responsibility, though I don't care at ALL for people who own these types of places.
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I really don't care to speculate any further. Reality is that the type of people that you are talking about generally don't deserve to be blamed for trying to keep up with the Joneses. That is a term that is used when people are trying to achieve what would be considered superfluous wealth.
 
DogChainX said:
Yours times x1000

So......many......stupid......people.

And before you starting talking about people who are forced to live paycheck to paycheck...there's a REASON...because of scams like rent-to-own, and Paycheck advance places.
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Those are just symptoms of higher level issues.
 
Starcrossed said:
I really don't care to speculate any further. Reality is that the type of people that you are talking about generally don't deserve to be blamed for trying to keep up with the Joneses. That is a term that is used when people are trying to achieve what would be considered superfluous wealth.
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So....no personal responsibility.....gotcha.
 
Starcrossed said:
The wealthy can be much more self-indulgent without running the risk of being castrated for it.
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Eh, the majority of people always lives above their means. They make $100k a year? Fuck it, time to get a 5 million dollar house and 8 cars, then cry when I get laid off and lose them all.


IT'S THE GOVERNMENT'S FAULT!!oneone. :D
 
Standard procedure for any system I may buy pre-assembled, wipe the f#@*er clean, and then reload it with my OS of choice, it's what we do with all our office equipment.
 
DogChainX said:
So....no personal responsibility.....gotcha.
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It's impossible to convert people that think like he does. To them it's always someone else's fault. Those evil rich people made a product and stole the poor people's money and forced them to take their product. I remember seeing Steve jobs clubbing poor people over the head and putting iPhones in their pockets.
 
Lebowski said:
It's impossible to convert people that think like he does. To them it's always someone else's fault. Those evil rich people made a product and stole the poor people's money and forced them to take their product. I remember seeing Steve jobs clubbing poor people over the head and putting iPhones in their pockets.
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I don't think it is someone else's fault. I simply think they don't exist in the same context as some man than buys a second Mercedes because his neighbor is "ahead in the race."
 
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