A couple has filed a suit against Aaron's, an office supply rental chain, for allegedly spying on them via software called PC Rental Agent that they say came preinstalled with the laptop they leased. The case started when Crystal and Brian Byrd rented a Dell Inspiron that was subsequently paid off in full in October 2010. However, the last payment wasn't recorded correctly, culminating in a store manager showing up to repossess the device in December. The manager came armed with a photo taken using the Inspiron's webcam, which culminated in the realization that it was Aaron's standard practice to store webcam data on a central server.

Executives from Aaron's have admitted to installing the spying software on every computer leased by the company. Such software is installed to facilitate the remote disabling of rented machines should lease terms be violated, or when payments are missed. 

The issue at hand is whether Aaron's broke the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the resulting cost of any settlement arising from the lawsuit. The Byrds are not taking this lightly however, and are reportedly looking to have their claim turned into a class action lawsuit. According to InfoWorld, a website has already been set up for other victims to sign on here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at MSNBC
- check out this article at InfoWorld

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