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Isn't it ethically questionable for the manufacturers to know about the issue (as they admit in the article), but to charge extra for software to address it? A
by Alex63 16y ago
Isn't it ethically questionable for the manufacturers to know about the issue (as they admit in the article), but to charge extra for software to address it? At the very least, shouldn't encryption or the mentioned erase utility be sold with the machine, with the buyer having the option to opt out if they don't want it?
- Kadin 16y agoLots of manufacturers charge extra for various security options, on all sorts of hardware and software. We can go back and forth all day on the "ethics" of it, but it's pretty standard practice. And Sharp's add-on module might not be required if the copiers were treated like the computers that they are; it would be perfectly fine to just remove the hard drives when the units are being sold at their EOL, as I suspect most healthcare and government facilities do with their old PCs.