Failed Mission - Lenovo & Superfish

If ever there was a reason to build your own computer or buy one without an operating system, this is one.

This is a pretty good summary of the story, though it is all over the tech-net right now.

Cheap tech is awesome (when it works). Laptops and computers have come down in price by a large amount compared to even five years ago. It's not just that the tech has gotten cheaper; it's that computer manufacturers have found new ways to monetize their platforms. Lenovo isn't alone here. I used to buy a lot of Hewlet-Packard products, and the case was similar. I remember purchasing an HP laptop that came with AOL Online installed (yes, it was a while ago lol). It also had the Rhapsody Music Player, Real Player, and almost half a dozen quick-search browser bars installed upon purchase. The subsidies those (and other) companies paid helped lower the cost of the laptop. That's how I was able to afford it in the first place, which means the subsidy thing was successful - it resulted in the sale of an HP product due to the lower price.

From the looks of it (and this may change), was Lenovo simply naive about what sort of advertising (bloatware) deal it was making? There's no point in going Full-McCarthy at this point. The lesson that can be learned here is that perhaps not even manufacturers understand all the ramifications of internet - and that just because you can make money off of something doesn't mean you should. Are there back doors like this in other companies' products? Almost certainly. The Superfish deal sounds like any other bloat-ware subsidy that computer manufacturers make to lower their bottom line. Lenovo got caught first, though, so they will take the brunt of the bad press.

Any story involving surveillance is news today, obviously. As stories swirl about that point fingers at a number of different organizations surveilling and hacking ("It's North Korea!" "It's the NSA!" "It's China!"), privacy becomes more important than ever. The problem isn't that people in general hide things; the problem is that everybody hides something, whether on a material or a psychological level. Hiding or concealing is one of the most basic coping mechanisms that exists, whether it is being an asshole online to hide the fact that a person is secretly a coward, or sharing too much online to hide the fact that a person's life is actually empty. Hiding things is a basic part of human nature. Take that away, and a part of humanity has been stripped away as well.

The attempt to expose human patterns of behavior (i.e. internet browsing) is invasive of my humanity, of who I am as a person. Why would I want to let some organization extrapolate my habits from my browsing history? Information from me and others (for free, no less) and used to map potential markets. And it is not even markets that is really being mapped; the tracked information simply allows for more focused advertising. I am not giving any corporation or organization implicit permission to track me, unless a window pops up asking for my permission and I click "Allow."

But if I click "Don't Allow," what assurances do I have that they (whatever corporation or business in question) won't track me anyway? There is none. Would having an "Allow" button absolve Lenovo from the current uproar? (Because, after all, the user would have given permission to Superfish). Of course not. Because it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to know exactly what is going into the product that they sell. Ignorance and / or precedent ("everybody else does it!") is no excuse.

I recommended a friend purchase a Lenovo product two weeks ago. Now I am glad they didn't. Recommendations going forward will be based on either DIY desktops or no-OS laptops. Yes, whatever operating system that is installed will have its own trackers and updaters, but hey, better the devil you know than the devil that installs itself and tracks you without your permission.

UPDATE: Lenovo is contrite and posted this reply on their website.