Well, sometimes anti virus products will miss interpret something as a virus, even though it is not.

Eh...I'm inclined to agree with pda_tech_guy. How do we know that this is a virus and not just a program that the anti-virus software is unfamiliar with? When I had a PC, I used to be warned against all kinds of completely harmless things.

My techie husband has our computer set up like a fortress, so that even innocent items trigger virus warnings and accusations of spyware. I'm forever calling him over to see if whatever has popped up should be ignored and I can carry on. 99% of the time he inspects it and says "It's fine, just go right ahead."

However, a memory stick from a camera should have nothing on it except pictures. Any software would come on a CD.

in a similar vein, I have an old 1gb mp3 player with a built in virus. no, it's not a false positive lol...

it really does have a virus built into it - it's designed that when you plug the drive into a USB port, the drive then uploads (without asking. naughty!)

it's software for converting non-mp3's to Mp3's. problem is, that software really is infected. the fix was simple - turn off autoplay.

@aliasmisskat:

I just bought a new SD card for our digital picture frame and it had some sort of picture viewing software on it. I didn't even bother to figure out what it was, just formatted the card and went on my way.

Does anyone who has the camera planning an EECB?

Also, does Consumer Reports want to test if the viruses are legitimate concerns?

@Nick1693: Wow, this post is full of grammatical fail.

I'm just going to rephrase it:

Is anyone who bought the camera going to do an EECB?

Well you wouldn't take the leaded paint or the melamine, Jeff. China has to export something...

Oh Chris, it's lines like this that make my dreary afternoon.

@aliasmisskat: Indeed, apparently the writer wants us to magically connect the events that were sequentially described to us.

@aliasmisskat:
i've seen/used memory storage devices before that came preloaded... some with "interface enhancements" since drag and drop is obviously too cumbersome, some just with promotional type media

Does consumerist do any vetting on their reporting? This seems unsubstantiated. Anti-virus programs have false positives for all sorts of things. A good journalist would at least verify what kind of virus was on the camera. This is a pretty serious accusation. I don't see the Consumerist retracting it when it turns out that it was a harmless program causing the alert. Consumers Union, be careful associating your brand with the reckless posts from the Consumerist.

"Well you wouldn't take the leaded paint or the melamine, Jeff. China has to export something..."

ROFLMFAO..

sure we ship them manufacturing jobs thay ship us computer viruses win/win

If by virus, you mean it takes lousy pictures, then yes, the camera has a virus. We've had one for two years now. Don't remember it flagging a virus. My guess is that it is either a false positive, or perhaps a spyware alert. My Kodak camera gets flagged as spyware.

Honestly this sounds like a case of someone who isn't very familiar with computers freaking out about a false positive, which as many commenters above have said, is rather common. Consumerist should have asked some probing questions: what anti-virus software do you use? What was the specific notice you received when the "virus" was flagged? Without those pieces of information, this has all the makings of an apocryphal email that will eventually be debunked by Snopes. I'm not saying that it's impossible for the camera to be loaded with malware (as products from large companies have been in the past) but for Consumerist to take Jeff's email and post it without asking the most basic clarification questions to determine the validity is irresponsible.

@Mary: I did a Google search... it seems it's infected with W32.SillyFD-AU, which is a variant of a worm known to spread via removable media like flash memory. It seems it's legitimate.

Microsoft AntiSpyware considers LogMeIn a potential threat.

@pda_tech_guy: and some times companies package spyware in their products to cover hardware costs. I'm more inclined to believe that this IS a virus, and fisher-price went to the "dark side" to get some moolah to cover the development costs of the camera.

i remember something i read about a year ago that said virus programmers were hiring factory workers to install viruses on ipods, cameras, ect. before they get sent to the stores

My neighbor's kid has one of these and he ABSOLUTELY ADORES IT. He's had it for about a year, no virus; I'm sorry to hear if they're having problems or if they've changed their manufacturing method so this is an issue.

@KhaiJB: Or, alternatively, hold down the shift key when you plug something in.

@Swizzler121:

While I wouldn't be surprised if it's an actual virus, I really doubt that Fisher-Price was paid to put it there. Electronics like this are contract-manufactured in China, the manufacturer probably put it on, possibly accidentally - but I doubt FP knew it was there.

There have already been a few cases - Best Buy Insignia and Samsung digital picture frames among them - of things having viruses preloaded. In neither case did the company know or do it intentionally.

@madanthony: @pda_tech_guy: 1) Viruses can creep into the manufacturing process. There have been viruses reported in two different types of digital picture frame this season (one normal size one by Samsung and one keychain one sold by Walmart). So my bet is that the virus report is real. 2) Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. It was probably some factory worker using a computer somewhere on the LAN to download porn and infected the whole plant.
3) Why are we buying ANYthing from China anymore.

God forbid that you turn off autorun.

Santa bought this for my daughter this year after it was highlighted in the morning deals here on Consumerist.

[consumerist.com]

Haven't hooked it up to the computer yet to check for the virus, but commenter above is correct on the crappy pictures.

@pda_tech_guy: It was definitely a virus. There was an autorun.inf file attempting to run an executable. Both files set-off ESET. There was no software included with the camera and the directions made no mention of anything automatically loading.

This actually wouldn't be the first time that has happened... a while back some of those LCD digital picture frames from Taiwan that you plug in via USB to upload pictures did have viruses on them.

stands2reason

Let me fix that for you,
God forbid that you DONT turn off autorun.

Doesn't Microsoft even recommend turning it off on everything now?

Yeeowch. Suddenly glad we didn't buy our kid one of these for Christmas.

Woah, that was a close one. I nearly got this for my nephew this Christmas, but ended getting the better reviewed V-Tech model. Though, I think its worth checking that one out too.

USB viruses can be a problem with some USB devices, generally with cheaper flash drives and the like.

I had the same problem with a SimpleTech external hard drive that I purchased last year. I wiped the drive and called the company to alert them of the issue, and was hung up on when I asked naively "Don't you want to take down my information in case other customers have this problem?"

@pda_tech_guy:

I agree with PDA... It's more or less the virus software. Happened to me with my HP printer once.

Do not leave complaints about the legitimacy of the post here. Send them directly to the editors.

Please, remember to check out the comments code!

We briefly thought about getting this for our daughter, but I believe it only takes VGA pictures, has very little internal memory, and costs 50 bucks!

Instead, I bought her a used 3.2 MP camera off craigslist for $20, stuck in an old 1 GB SD card I had laying around the house, and she's set. It's been dropped dozens of times and still works fine.

Shameless plug -- she has her own Flickr photostream. If you want to see life through the eyes, and camera, of a 2 (going on 3) year old, check it out here: [www.flickr.com]

We bought three of them for our kids on sale from Amazon for 30 bucks a piece. They don't take the best pictures but my kids are having a ball. We have Macs and have had no problems. I reformat to a FAT12 and they are good to go.

crap... i got my son the same camera this christmas but i havent hooked it to my PC yet...

Would this be "value-added"?

@aliasmisskat:

Yes, but this was a Fisher Price camera. It has built-in memory. And I don't think it came with a virus. It's probably some auto-launch program that helps transfer the images to the computer without having to install any software on the computer.

A similar story was on Slashdot recently regarding a "virus" that came with a Walmart digital picture frame. Same story.. no virus. It was an auto-launch program.

@Ayo: You really should have quarantined the files and submitted them to the Antivirus Community (AVG, Avast, Norton, McAfee) and asked them to verify it regardless, just to make sure it wasnt a false positive, and what exactly it might have attempted to do to a host machine.

First Zune takes away the music, and now Windows takes away the pictures.
Microsoft is a Grinch.

Wasn't this kind of thing supposed to be impossible once they figured out that process for coating all our kid's toys with that protective lead lining?

@Julia789: Probably a firewall.

@Jeff the Riffer:

I have this camera for my own kids - i've checked and checked again. Factory reset and everything. There is nothing on the camera when you get it. You sure this wasn't pre-owned and repackaged by some snotty kid who had a virus infeced PC?

@Jeff the Riffer:

I was *just* about to post a long bit about not being able to find the exact definition which caught the supposed virus.

Then I looked through the bottom half of the comments, and saw someone else had more luck.

But, WRT the autorun, there's a reason Vista was retooled to always ask what you want to do on inserting removable media, rather than simply executing the app(s) listed in the autorun.inf

autorun.inf doesn't actually consist of any executable code, so not sure why it gets caught up in the definition... it simply points somewhere else and says "Hay, run that!"

@bnelson333: Giving your kid a Flickr stream is awesome, and her photos rock. What's funny/sad is those are the same things I take photos of: the cats, the TV, myself, and Outside.

@Chris Walters:

Thanks Chris. It is interesting, we rarely tell her what to take pictures of (unless of course it's something like the Christmas tree that only comes around so often). Her subjects are mostly what's important to her... a true photographer in the making.

To everyone saying its most likely a false positive... it could be. But viruses on bought products happen all the time. Not on purpose, but rather by an idiot at the factory browsing porn/warez/etc and it ending up in the folder or image file that gets stuck on every device.

As for FP's phones, I had the same issue when I called with their queue system but I called back a few moments later and when I got someone on the phone they were very responsive (in my case, our infant swing cracked). The whole call was hassle free, and they sent me a voucher for the full retail value of the swing so that I could get my daughter another product (we had replaced the swing.. colicky baby + no swing = hell for mama and dada!). I did have to send back the seat cushion from the swing first however (their expense also)

Chris, that CBS Station in Minneapolis is in Boston. =)

The link to the Minneapolis news station is here: [wcco.com]