The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday said that seven companies providing rent-to-own computers installed spyware on the machines that obtained screenshots of users’ personal information.
The FTC also alleged the spyware-infected machines took photos of people in their homes via the computers’ webcams and logged their keystrokes without consent.
The rent-to-own companies and one software design company, DesignerWare, agreed to settle the agency’s charges.
“An agreement to rent a computer doesn’t give a company license to access consumers’ private emails, bank account information, and medical records, or, even worse, webcam photos of people in the privacy of their own homes,” FTC head Jon Liebowitz said in a statement.
DesignerWare owner Timothy Kelly said that the FTC “grossly misunderstood” the nature of the software in question, the PC Rental Agent, which is used to deter theft from stores, according to Computer World.
“We have never been informed by anyone that anyone misused the software,” said Kelly. “The FTC has never produced to us anyone misusing the software.”
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