Lenovo punished for SuperFish RootKit in USA

[lophiomys]

see
Attorney General Announces $3.5 Million Multi-State Settlement with Lenovo over Hacker-Vulnerable Software
http://nj.gov/oag/newsreleases17/pr20170905a.html

on Golem.de in German:
https://www.golem.de/news/adware-lenovo ... 29903.html

... One of the comments on golem.de says,
that $3.5 Million would be just "petty cash" for the marketing department,
in relation to the overall turnover achieved with the affected devices and
the fees having been paid for installing the SuperFish Adware/Malware/RootKit on Lenovo products.

So Long.
Lo PHi

PS: hopfully there will be no bad software pre-installed on the anniversary Retro Thinkpad 25?

[Summilux]

Nice, and this poor sum is better than nothing. Now Lenovo needs to be punished for ruining the Thinkpads.

[RealBlackStuff]

WE can punish Lenovo by no longer buying their crap until they see the light again (if ever...).

[Thinkpad4by3]

WE can punish Lenovo by no longer buying their crap until they see the light again (if ever...).

We have one problem....businesses. They're the ones feeding the fire. Switch them to Latitudes or something and we're good.

[Ibthink]

WE can punish Lenovo by no longer buying their crap until they see the light again (if ever...).

ThinkPad fans can´t punish Lenovo (because individual Thinkpad sales are not very important) and the users of this forum (many of whom have presumably not bought a Lenovo product in a long time) can punish them the least.

Also, there is no need to punish Lenovo for Superfish, because they already learned that lesson. The publics reaction was clear and if Lenovo was caught again with something similar, their brand would be damaged further. So they stopped preloading pretty much everything and their newer preloads are very clean.

[lophiomys]

...
Also, there is no need to punish Lenovo for Superfish,

32(!) State Attorneys in the USA saw a good reason to punisch Lenovo for Superfish and the betrayal of their customers trust:
i.e. "... allegations the technology company violated state consumer protection laws" ...
And on top of that, Lenovo preferred to pay a multi million fine with a settlement. Obviously they saw not way to get away with it.
http://nj.gov/oag/newsreleases17/pr20170905a.html

because they already learned that lesson.

I doubt it, and I will check thoroughly any future product for data securtiy!

[Ibthink]

32(!) State Attorneys in the USA saw a good reason to punisch Lenovo for Superfish and the betrayal of their customers trust:
i.e. "... allegations the technology company violated state consumer protection laws" ...
And on top of that, Lenovo preferred to pay a multi million fine with a settlement. Obviously they saw not way to get away with it.

Thats not exactly true. They are not paying a fine, they are paying a settlement. Those are two different things.

Lenovo got away with a settlement because this was a first-time-offense and they have agreed to various stipulations:

"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."

[Summilux]

WE can punish Lenovo by no longer buying their crap until they see the light again (if ever...).

Hear, hear. That's what I've been practicing with assiduity !

ThinkPad fans can´t punish Lenovo (because individual Thinkpad sales are not very important) and the users of this forum (many of whom have presumably not bought a Lenovo product in a long time) can punish them the least.

By not buying ourselves (which we indeed didn't do in a while), warning acquaintances against this failed company, and diverting the computer orders of a business towards any-manufacturer-except-Lenovo... we can still make them lose a number of sales, therefore punish them as best as we can.

Sure, that won't be nearly enough to sink the company, but it's better than nothing and is morally important.

[kony]

WE can punish Lenovo by no longer buying their crap until they see the light again (if ever...).

Hear, hear. That's what I've been practicing with assiduity !

ThinkPad fans can´t punish Lenovo (because individual Thinkpad sales are not very important) and the users of this forum (many of whom have presumably not bought a Lenovo product in a long time) can punish them the least.

By not buying ourselves (which we indeed didn't do in a while), warning acquaintances against this failed company, and diverting the computer orders of a business towards any-manufacturer-except-Lenovo... we can still make them lose a number of sales, therefore punish them as best as we can.

Sure, that won't be nearly enough to sink the company, but it's better than nothing and is morally important.

So what other laptop should I buy next? I fail to see the alternative for Thinkpads. Latitudes are worse, Elitebooks are significantly worse... and what else is there? Apple? :| There's nothing else to buy if one wants a decent quality!

[lophiomys]

Re: what to buy?
I have tested a HP zBook and was not completely disappointed.
Also the new Gamer-Laptops a worth some testing, from the top of my head, e.g MSI and Razer Blade
My preferred method:
Use a SATA-modded T43p or a T60 Frankenpad as typing machines to control a powerful Linux server in the basement
and an Apple for the family

[pianowizard]

So what other laptop should I buy next? I fail to see the alternative for Thinkpads. Latitudes are worse, Elitebooks are significantly worse... and what else is there?

Dell Precisions.

I don't know what you are looking for, but it may be time to re-evaluate what features you really need. There may be features or even product categories that you somehow never considered. As I wrote in another thread (viewtopic.php?f=58&t=124127), I don't use traditional laptops anymore, and I came to this decision after spending several years playing with many different laptops, convertibles, detachables, tablets and phablets made by many different manufacturers.

[Summilux]

So what other laptop should I buy next? I fail to see the alternative for Thinkpads. Latitudes are worse, Elitebooks are significantly worse... and what else is there? Apple? There's nothing else to buy if one wants a decent quality!

Personally I'm starting to consider getting a 51nb mod (legacy models with brand new innards) sometime in the future.
They aren't readily available and no exempt of flaws, but hey, not even brand new TPs are flawless these days