Η Lenovo agreed Tuesday to settle a dispute with the Federal Trade Commission (PDF) for the scandal Superfish, να πληρώσει δηλαδή 3,5 εκατομμύρια δολάρια σαν fine, και να εφαρμόσει μια σειρά μέτρων που θα εμπόδιζαν παρόμοιες περιπτώσεις στο μέλλον.
The construction company has allowed a company called Superfish to install a bloatware VisualDiscovery on hundreds of thousands of systems built in August of 2014. The software allowed for the collection of sensitive personal information from client computers, such as login credentials, social security numbers, and many other data.
Lenovo admitted the problem a year later and released a special tool for removing bloatware, describing its collaboration with Superfish as a "significant mistake." Lenovo then promised to keep its systems free of any malware.
That didn't stop the FTC from taking legal action against Lenovo, and as part of the settlement, it specifically prohibited the company from having pre-installed software features that could result in ads on programs browsing. In other words, Lenovo should tell the truth about every special feature of the apps that come pre-installed on the devices it sells.
In addition, all the models Lenovo products that will be released in the next 20 years will have to have pre-installed security software that will have to pass a third-party security audit. If the product serves ads, consumer consent will be required as to whether they want them on their devices.
Hopefully, the FTC will implement more such measures in companies that do not respect the consumer, but their main concern is to earn as much as possible. A good example is Microsoft with the application Get Windows 10 who withdrew (after too many reports).
According to FTC's Terrell McSweeny, the Superfish application was using GW10's practices to mislead Lenovo product users.
