Lenovo Escapes Superfish Scandal With A Slap On The Wrist
You might recall that laptop maker Lenovo was caught installing adware that put its customers at risk a couple of years ago. After it kind of, sort of promised to get rid of the adware, and having had third parties prove that it was dangerous, the company admitted that the adware was dangerous. Though I guess that being sued had something to do with that. Well, the FTC looked into the matter and decided to dole out some punishment. Here’s what Lenovo got:
As part of the settlement with the FTC, Lenovo is prohibited from misrepresenting any features of software preloaded on laptops that will inject advertising into consumers’ Internet browsing sessions or transmit sensitive consumer information to third parties. The company must also get consumers’ affirmative consent before pre-installing this type of software. In addition, the company is required for 20 years to implement a comprehensive software security program for most consumer software preloaded on its laptops. The security program will also be subject to third-party audits.
Oh yeah, they don’t have to admit that they did anything wrong and also cut a cheque for $3.5 million. Seeing as the company says that they pulled in $535 million last fiscal year, this is a slap on the wrist and will do little to deter others from pulling a stunt like this. Which means that consumers are not protected from companies that put profit over the safety of its customers.
January 4, 2018 at 10:05 am
[…] last time I wrote about the Lenovo Superfish spyware, the FTC had slapped them on the wrist with a $3.5 million fine and some other stuff that I […]