Lenovo fined US$3.5 million for pre-installing adware on some laptops in 2015

[Redaktion]

The saga about some Lenovo laptops coming pre-installed with adware in 2015 has now come to an end with the results of their court case being announced a few hours ago. Lenovo must pay a fine of US$3.5 million and has had some restrictions placed on how they handle pre-installed software in the United States.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-fined-US-3-5-million-for-pre-installing-adware-on-some-laptops-in-2015.246996.0.html

[John Kokes]

It is not so much about the 3.5 million as it is a FANTASTIC and GREAT message to all the computer makers to stop loading BLOAT on new machines. It has been annoying me for many years that they get away with this. I sincerely hope Android will follow plus learn this lesion that Lenovo did.

[Anon]

It is not so much about the 3.5 million as it is a FANTASTIC and GREAT message to all the computer makers to stop loading BLOAT on new machines. It has been annoying me for many years that they get away with this. I sincerely hope Android will follow plus learn this lesion that Lenovo did.

Android doesn't have the same mechanism like windows.

Only the base Android operating system (including some applications) is open-source software, whereas most Android devices ship with a substantial amount of proprietary software, such as Google Mobile Services, which includes applications such as Google Play Store, Google Search, and Google Play Services – a software ...

Most of vendor heavily customized the OS and they have to publish the kernel source within certain time span (well most, some doesn't even care and do it after a long time). Android has a loop hole, vendor are free to put bloatware as long they follow some of Google rules.

You don't like the bloatware? Then don't buy from that vendor or just uninstall all those bloatwares and you're good to go.

[Guay]

Lenovo lacks integrity and direction.  The only real valuable name on their hands were purchased - ThinkPad and Motorola Mobility.  One can buy all the names, but one can not buy integrity and direction.

[Craig Ward]

Laptops with bloatware pre-installed will be around for a long time as a way of subsidizing the cost of a laptop (except with signature edition devices on the Microsoft Store). However, it's a problem when the program can't be uninstalled and intercepts internet data in a way that could potentially be compromised.

[DavidX]

Lenovo and others should know that this kind of underhanded behavior is not acceptable outside of China.  Keep your Superfish out of other countries.  Either catch up with the higher standards outside of China or leave the market.

[Yippy]

What a good way to ruin the Thinkpad reputation. Probably the best way to ruin a brand name these days is to sell it to a Chinese company.