[privacy] Did HP use spyware or Web bugs?

[<rms () bsf-llc com>]

Hi,

Today's article in the New York Times on the unfolding HP spying scandal is
a bit hard to follow.  Did the detectives working for HP try to use spying
software to monitor all email conversations of an CNET report?  Or instead,
did the detectives simply use Web bugs (AKA clear GIFs) to see how email
messages to CNET were being forwarded around?  There is a big difference
between the two technologies.

Although Web bugs are controversial, it is unlikely that they are illegal.
For example, both CNET and the New York Times use Web bugs on their
respective Web sites.  Ironically today's Times article on HP contains a
number of Web bugs from Internet marketing and tracking companies.  These
Web bugs are used to track readers of the New York Times as they go around
the Times Web site.

As a side note, HP ships automatic update software with most of their
printer and computer products.  In theory, could this software be used to
silently plant spying software on a targeted HP customer?

Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com

=============================================

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/technology/18hp.html?ref=technology

Hewlett Review Is Said to Detail Deeper Spying 
By DAMON DARLIN
Published: September 18, 2006
New York Times

...

Those briefed on the company's review of the operation say detectives tried
to plant software on at least one journalist's computer that would enable
messages to be traced, and also followed directors and possibly a journalist
in an attempt to identify a leaker on the board. 

...

The detectives also tried to plant software in the computer of an
unspecified CNET reporter that would communicate back to the detectives,
people briefed on the company review said. Ms. Kawamoto said in an interview
this month that prosecutors had told her that such a ploy may have been
used, but said she was not aware of any surveillance. 

Representing themselves as an anonymous tipster, the detectives e-mailed a
document to a CNET reporter, according to those briefed on the review. The
e-mail was embedded with software that was supposed to trace who the
document was forwarded to. The software did not work, however, and the
reporter never wrote any story based on the bogus document.


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