Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64 is nowhere near the level of SuperFish when it comes creepy behaviour but it certainly shows a lack of insight from the popular company. With SuperFish so recently in the headlines and peoples memory it would perhaps have been beneficial for Lenovo to abandon any and all data collection from their users but it would seem that is not the case. Thankfully this particular one appears in your Programs and can be removed via the Control Panel but you can bet that it will immediately create negative feedback for the company. The Inquirer covers the details here, apparently it was collecting data about Win10 compatibility and user feedback but no matter if it is innocuous or not, there will be fallout.
"SOFTWARE INCLUDED ON LENOVO hardware has been found to be suspicious-looking, and this is not the first time that the company has been caught out like this."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- BlackBerry to name next smartphone after a toilet @ The Inquirer
- Asustek takes 40% share in global gaming notebook shipments in 1H15 @ DigiTimes
- Official: North America COMPLETELY OUT of new IPv4 addresses @ The Register
- Microsoft puts a bullet in blundering D-Link's leaked key that made malware VIPs on PCs @ The Register
- Smartphone passcodes protected by the Fifth Amendment – US court @ The Register
After Superfish there was
After Superfish there was also another case with Lenovo and their “Lenovo Service Engine” (LSE) that sits in the BIOS. They are trying hard to convince potential customers to never touch their products.
this is not the lack of
this is not the lack of oversight this is intentional. The instant lenovo bought ibm’s businesses I instantly blacklisted ALL of their products.
Well the spyware makers in
Well the spyware makers in Redmond, and the Spyware/bloatware making OEM at Lenovo are teaming up to bring on more telemetry to bust your data cap, and privacy. That stuff baked into the UEFI/BIOS is scary with its ability to remain persistent despite a disk wipe, and an OS/VM instillation’s best attempts at securing things for the user. With that Unified Extensible Firmware Interface allowing M$(secure Boot), and the OEM/s below ring 0 access to your system that even a OS(Non M$ based), or VM can protect the user against, windows 10 being an OS with the spyware/key-loggers baked-in is not included for these and more privacy reasons as an option for those that want privacy. So even if a user has a non M$ OS the OEM/s and M$(Via Secure Boot) can get control through the UEFI/BIOS before any other protection/privacy measures can be enforced.
Talk about tyranny on the hardware that is baked in to the firmware, a firmware that is extensible to better extinguish all hopes of privacy from the ones that will NOT respect the end users’ privacy wishes.
Better check that new hardware with windows 10 factory installed, OEMs now have the option of not providing any M$ windows secure boot OFF switch in the UEFI/BIOS, and that may not allow any other OS installs other than what the folks in Redmond will supply the secure boot keys for, So only some Linux distros will be able to run with secure boot turned on, while other Linux distros will have to have secure boot turned off, hard to do if the OEM opts to not provide a windows secure boot OFF switch in the UEFI/BIOS.
I just do a clean windows
I just do a clean windows install whenever I get a new laptop.
I could see this being an issue for people who don’t know how to do this, and it’s kind of sad that we have to do anything at all, but that’s the way she goes.
A clean Install is not going
A clean Install is not going the get the spyware out of the UEFI/BIOS if the OEM/M$ put it there as this kind is not on the disk, but in the firmware, you’ll install the OS fresh and never get at what is baked into the firmware. And if you use windows 10, well that’s the OS that is itself spyware! The UEFI has lots more space available to place an entire framework that can have its own networking software stack and other features, Enjoy your eternal game of security Whack-A-Mole, but until you can get the firmware UEFI/BIOS flashed to a system based on open code, and not what The OEM and M$ provides then you better get used to the fact that users hardware is steadly becoming beyond the users ability to control. That UEFI windows secure boot, and other hardware definition/memory layout firmware can go right around the OS as soon as the POST hands off control to the UEFI/BIOS. Better read up no UEFI, as the new booting system supports actual UEFI applications that can be added by OEMs tack on spyware.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/windows-10-to-make-the-secure-boot-alt-os-lock-out-a-reality/
Say Hello to M$’s Vendor lockin on PCs/Laptops with windows 10 factory installed!
“With SuperFish so recently
“With SuperFish so recently in the headlines and peoples’ memory, it would perhaps have been beneficial for Lenovo to abandon any all-data collection from their users, but it would seem that this is not the case”
Is this what you meant to say?
“any and all”
Thanks, fixed
"any and all"
Thanks, fixed
On that thought, is running
On that thought, is running spell-check a thing of the past?
Perhaps you mean grammar? I
Perhaps you mean grammar? I am not aware of add-ons that function like the grammar check in Word.
Or was something actually misspelled?