They use the small flash inside the DRM chip in the cartridge to store the telemetry, then the e-waste companies are paid by HP to read and send to the mothership the contents of the chips sent to recycle

    • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 days ago

      They wanted to get detailed usage stats but not all printers are connected to internet, so they created this scheme where the data is collected after the user recycled the old cartridge (and that’s why they do free pickup for old cartridges for businesses)