HP (Hewlett Packard) is a very well renowned American company known for quality electronics devices like printers and computers. But recently they are in the news for pushing a software called HP Touchpoint Manager that behaves like a standard spyware. This software collects the user data and then sends it over to HP servers – all this is done without user’s consent.
HP has been installing this software on their client’s computers for about two weeks through automatic updates and many people have complained about it on HP Forums. Some people are noticing soaring CPU usage after this software is installed while others are complaining that it was installed without any information or consent. Computer World has published a detailed article about this problem and how this telemetry software is slowing down people’s computers.
But it is easy to get rid of this software (or as some are calling it, spyware). If you are seeing a sudden spike in the CPU usage of your HP computer followed by an unusually high network activity, then you can follow these steps to get rid of HP Touchpoint Manager:
- Press the hotkey Win+X to open the admin menu in Windows.
- From this menu, select Programs ans Features to open the window that displays all the installed programs.
- Select HP Touchpoint Manager from the list and then click on the Uninstall button in the toolbar.
- After the software is removed, you can reboot your PC and you have got rid of the HP’s telemetry spyware.
Even though both HP and Microsoft have not yet released any explanation about this issue, HP will perhaps make necessary changes to the software and then it won’t harvest so much data from the client’s computers or it will seek the consent first from the users before installing or updating it.
Please also be aware they install jumpstart spyware (using google), really their is no need to invade ,y work and private life like this hp.
audio switch may be further spyware but hp advised is essential driver (https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Software-and-How-To-Questions/HP-Audio-Switch-what-does-it-do/td-p/5856281) but it says it collecting my information I have explicitly opted out of collection.
“data collected by JumpStart include:
Information about your computer system, such as product name, version, country, language, device type, hardware features and version number, but not the serial number.
The length of time you spent on each JumpStart screen.
Whether you clicked on any buttons or check boxes within JumpStart.
Whether you entered your name and email address, but not the actual values entered into those fields.
Whether you registered or attempted to register for any services offered during the course of JumpStart. HP does not collect the actual values (e.g., names or email addresses).
Whether you downloaded any software through the JumpStart.
Whether you clicked on any content displayed in the concierge section.
Date and time you launched JumpStart.”