Unable to scan with HP Smart app without account

[ArtherC]

I have had the HP Smart app installed for some time but have not used it for a while. Today, I see that to trigger a scan from my (Windows 10) laptop I am suddenly required to create a cloud account. Why is this?
This was NOT always the case, at least until several weeks ago. I have been using the HP Smart app for almost a year, first  with my older HP MFP and for the last few months with my newer MFP282nw and it was NEVER the case that a cloud account was needed.  I can only think that an update has been installed silently. But anyway, I fail to see why this is necessary for simple scans and prints on an internal network.
But perhaps I am missing something. Could someone please let me know how to scan from my laptop without having to log into an HP cloud account ?

[ArtherC]

Thank you for your detailed reply. And nice to know options still available .. I actually used to use  "HP Scan and Capture " with my old printer until a year or so ago. At that point the HP software  advised me to move over to the HP Smart app, which I subsequently did.
There are still 2 unanswered questions:

1. Why is it necessary to still login with HP Smart even after I disable HP Web services? (I read that if I did that I could not use the scan to email function but that that was the only reason for login being necessary) It still asks for login after I disabled the web services!

2. More importantly, why am I only NOW being asked for login with the HP Smart app after using it for almost a year WITHOUT any login required?

Regards

[ArtherC · Accepted solution]

Hallo,
Thanks for your reply. And your honesty.
So solution is to uninstall HP Smart  (which HP specified I should use 10 months ago) and go back to using  "HP Scan and Capture" (which HP intimated would be discontinued when at the time they strongly advised  moving to HP Smart).

Actually the answers to both "Why" questions is dead simple then: easy data harvesting from tame users.
First get adoption & then enforce HP cloud data traffic via mandatory login.

AC