What Could Cause System Apps to Run that Are Not Used When testing a widget I created, I wanted to make sure that it uses as little CPU power as possible. After some research I downloaded Watchdog to use as a monitoring tool, which works great. When I finished my testing I set the CPU threshold at 10%, just curious to see what process would randomly go above that level. One that exceeds the 10% threshold on a daily basis, at least a couple times a day, is com.motorola.Dlna.

I know what DLNA is, what it's used for, and how to set it up but I don't use it, nor do I have it set up on my phone. I spoke with a Motorola support analyst and asked why it would be running. The response I got was "it's possible you could have set it up without knowing it, maybe by an application that you downloaded but it's nothing to worry about". 

Needless to say the answer I got wasn't very helpful so I'm really just wondering what would cause this service to use so much CPU power randomly? Most of the time it's not being used, but when it is, it shows that it's using usually between 12.5% - 15% CPU power. Do applications really access/use this service without me ever actually going through and setting it up?
You might want to use some package inspector like e.g. App Detective to see what receivers the app in question has set up. Most likely it's acting on some broadcast, such as e.g. "sdcard mounted", to check for media, or "network changed" to check for other DLNA services.

If your device is rooted, you might be interested in apps like ROM Toolbox or Autorun Manager, which allow you to disable selected receivers, or even freeze the entire app. Without root, you can try whether that app can be disabled in Settings → Apps. It's either running for nothing or (these days it's no longer called "paranoia") working for somebody else, if you don't use it yourself.