Using 3rd Party Apps Provided By HDD Builders like Seagate?

Privacy Questions
1

Good morning,

So I’ve learned that it’s better to use FOSS apps whenever possible, however, what about when a hardware developer includes their own software with the hardware device?

100% of every external HDD/SSD I’ve bought comes with its own backup app, a maintenance/repair/data recovery app as well as the recommendation to “Register your HDD/SSD” with the company and create an account on their website. Samsung, Seagate, Western Digital all do this now.

At first I thought it’d be safe to trust the software from the hardware manufacturer. Since I’m buying their hardware that should mean I’m already trusting the company to store my personal files.

Each hardware device I’ve bought recommends installing their own apps. I know this community recommends users to use the Apps that come with the particular OS so that you aren’t taking extra risks, but are these apps made by hardware developers trustworthy?

Another example is Acer who bundles its own “Safety/security/Maintenance/Data Recovery Apps” with their laptops.

Thank you for reading my question.

2

Here’s a perfect example of what I’m referring to:

You can see Seagate offers all kinds of software for users who buy Seagate HDD/SSD and other products.

3

I think it would depend on what kind of info you’re storing and how sensitive it is and the type and level of security or encryption you want on them for your use case and needs.

I personally do not want to trust the manufacturers software as I always reformat the drive once I get it and then do what I want to do. I often encrypt via Cryptomator but that’s my decision for my use case and needs.

Some drives, I don’t if I only have media stored on it for my Jellyfin server. And I am not constantly adding and deleting stuff to it. I only add as much as I want to fill the drive and let it be for the most part.

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4

Absolutely wrong.
The hard drive can’t inherently phone home, but some shitware can.

Because they are double dipping: they want to sell your data to increase their margins.

The majority of these addons are useless.

Here are some workarounds:

  • For firmware updates:
    • they often have USB bootable images you can use
    • you can run their installer under a live Windows such as Hirens
    • you may be able to use standard tools like hdparm or nvme-cli
  • For programmable hardware like keyboards and mice you can use programs such as Piper
  • For programmable hardware like RGB lights you can use eg. OpenRGB
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