Lenovo Promises a Cleaner, Safer PC
Lenovo created a stir when a Superfish visual discovery software was preloaded onto Lenovo consumer notebooks since the beginning of September 2014. It has only brought to light the security and privacy concerns just over a week ago. The Superfish visual discovery software alters your search results to show you different ads than you would otherwise see, effectively making this software an adware.
Not only does it tampers with the ads you see, it can also snoop on your browser traffic, which is why the Superfish debacle has since occurred.
Nevertheless, Lenovo has been on top of this debacle, and can be praised on how it is currently handling the situation (not on when they installed the adware).
We have worked with partners to create tools and update antivirus programs to eliminate Superfish software. And an automatic removal tool is available on Lenovo.com.
Lenovo claims that no ThinkPads, desktops, tablets, smartphones nor any enterprise server or storage product were impacted.
Affected users are being offered a free 6-month subscription to McAfee LiveSafe service, or for existing McAfee customers, a 6-month extension.
Since this debacle, Lenovo are hoping to clean up its bloatware that it pre-installs on consumer laptops in order to becoming the leader in providing cleaner, safer PCS.
We are starting immediately, and by the time we launch our Windows 10 products, our standard image will only include the operating system and related software, software required to make hardware work well (for example, when we include unique hardware in our devices, like a 3D camera), security software and Lenovo applications. This should eliminate what our industry calls “adware” and “bloatware.” For some countries, certain applications customarily expected by users will also be included.
Lenovo will post information about ALL software we preload on our PCs that clearly explains what each application does. And we will continuously solicit feedback from our user community and industry experts to ensure we have the right applications and best user experience.
Hopefully Lenovo will have learned from this experience, and hopefully we will not come across one of these situations from Lenovo in the very near future!
