ESET Tech Support

[Guest Nate]

I clicked on "Start Chat" with ESET Technical Support, saw a link to accept terms and conditions, and I am lost as to what it does.

So, reading through it, you have something called a "BeyondTrust Corporation's Remote Support Software" that "has been or is about to be downloaded to [my] computer" if I click ACCEPT. Out of curiosity, I clicked ACCEPT anyway, and... nothing was downloaded onto my MacBook Pro--I didn't see any pop-ups or anything in my browser's Download box. I decided to End Chat. My questions:

1) Was something downloaded onto my MacBook Pro without a popup telling me something, or does the agent have to share a link with me to download some sort of software? I'm a bit paranoid that I just had some remote-access software downloaded and integrated into my computer without warning by me merely clicking ACCEPT.

2) Why do I have to do this when my question was related more to finding out if ESET Cyber Security Pro is capable of doing something and I just want a simple answer from the support agent?

Thanks.

[Marcos 5,074]

Chat is one of the communication channel that some (not all) our distributors provide. What kind of chat system is used and how it's implemented depends on the distributors themselves. Unfortunately you have posted as a guest so we don't know what country you are from. If you are from the US, the chat should work with any browser possibly regardless of the OS:

[Guest Nate]

Hi, Marcos.

Apologies if what I am about to post is too long for this forum. If needed, I'll create an account and post somewhere appropriate, but this isn't anything directly related to my ESET license, just the chat service ESET technical support provides.

To answer where I am: I am located in the USA.

So as to retrace my steps when I wanted to ask my question to technical support:

 

First, I went to https://www.eset.com/us/about/contact/ and clicked START LIVE CHAT.

 

From there, I clicked Home Support.

 

I used Chat Support for my question, as shown here:

 

From there, I am sent to this page, where I filled in the boxes, and clicked START CHAT.

 

In the new chat window that pops up, there is this little snippet:

 

I clicked on "Full Terms & Conditions" so as to accept because I thought I had to to use this service... except I didn't read carefully what I was agreeing to (yes, my mistake). I only realized that I rushed through this seconds after accepting, so I closed my initial chat session and relaunched it so I could read through the below paragraphs more carefully. This is where my confusion stems and I started to panic that I carelessly just allowed remote access software to be downloaded to my MacBook computer.

If I click on DO NOT ACCEPT, it just ends the chat session. This made it all the more confusing to me. At the time I was using Live Chat, I thought I had to click on ACCEPT to get a representative to respond to me (long wait time), so I just went along and clicked it again anyway (a representative was with me within 1 minute of that).

My question that I had for them was answered, but now I am trying to make sure that I don't have some remote access control software still embedded in my system afterwards. The only thing that I can tell is I should be alright, considering the webpage I'm sent to after the chat ends states this:

But, I want to be absolutely sure. I don't want someone just snooping on me without my knowledge. I know that I sound paranoid, but I'm trying to stay secure on my end.

Thank you.

[Guest Nate]

Further clarifying: I'm not the most tech-knowledgeable individual, so I was not sure if the Live Chat itself was the "remote support software"... or if the chat representative would have given me a link to a .dmg file to download if my question required remote access.

My assumption was that, upon hitting ACCEPT, this "BeyondTrust Corporation's Remote Support Software" was just downloaded silently and embedded into my MacBook without any sort of notification. I checked my Downloads folder and saw nothing--I was using Firefox when I did this chat session and there was nothing in the Downloads box showcasing anything was downloaded at all.

I'm just uncertain of what I did and need to be assuaged of my worries.

[Marcos 5,074]

I have asked a colleague from the US to answer your question since I'm not familiar with the chat system that ESET LLC uses. I work for ESET HQ in Slovakia, Europe.

[itman 1,659]

Personally, I find what has been discussed in this posting extremely disturbing. There is absolutely no reason that remote control software needs to be installed to enable a simple web site chat session.

[peteyt 393]

14 minutes ago, itman said:

Personally, I find what has been discussed in this posting extremely disturbing. There is absolutely no reason that remote control software needs to be installed to enable a simple web site chat session.

My guess is that this is just included in case the user requires remote help, and it is just there to cover themselves i.e. it's made quicker by the fact the user has to already agree to it. I think they would still need to send the download, but it gets the legal stuff out the way ready. I could be wrong but I think this is probably most likely

[itman 1,659]

The real question is why Remote Access software needs to be installed at all. Window has a built-in feature specifically for this called Remote Assistance:

Edited July 1, 2021 by itman

[Guest Nate]

On 7/1/2021 at 11:45 AM, Marcos said:

I have asked a colleague from the US to answer your question since I'm not familiar with the chat system that ESET LLC uses. I work for ESET HQ in Slovakia, Europe.

Hey, has there been any response from your US colleague?

[CB530 70]

Hello all, I'll be happy to speak to the concerns of Nate and any other would-be chat users here. The chat client that we use is BeyondTrust, formerly known as Bomgar. It's a very widely used chat client and a highly effective solution. 

The Terms and Conditions that Nate points out here are not set by ESET. They are baked into the product by BeyondTrust. I have seen customers express concern around them before, and have looked into whether that wording can be changed, it cannot. As a Remote Help software vendor, BeyondTrust is clearly taking steps to ensure that there is no ambiguity around the fact that their software allows for remote control of the end-user's machine. We choose to use their product because it meets our needs in terms of abilities to service our customers, and as such this wording cannot be changed. 

With that said, the way we have BeyondTrust configured, the customer must still agree to elevate privileges for their support agent before any remote help can be performed. So effectively the language cited here is given well in advance of the support agent having the capability to view a customer's screen and/or execute remote help or transfer files. Following the terms and conditions, there is a privilege elevation step that is required to start remote help, and before that is set in motion, the chat agent is beholden to our internal policy that states they have to message the customer and inform them that they will be able to see the screen and control the mouse. 

These warnings can be concerning, but they are necessary for BeyondTrust and ESET to protect ourselves, and ethical in the sense that we would never want to mislead a customer about the nature of our support agent's ability to view and operate their machine. Without the capabilities of software like this, we would be at a significant disadvantage when helping the large number of customers who don't feel confident making changes on their machines. So we go along with the necessary legal language to ensure that all parties understand the nature of remote help.