<div><em>The computer maker has been using what looks like a stealthily installed software, writes <strong>Mala Bhargava</strong></em></div><div> </div><div>It took a long time for Lenovo to earn the trust of customers outside of their home country, China. The company began to be noticed long ago when it acquired IBM’s personal computer business in 1988, including the then extremely popular ThinkPad laptops. Lenovo later went on to take over IBM’s server business and then, added to its smartphone presence by acquiring Motorola Mobility from Google. In 2013, Lenovo overtook HP to become the world’s largest PC vendor. The company has a huge smartphone footprint as well.</div><div> </div><div>In short, Lenovo has a massive reach, if you were to add up both PC and mobile businesses. Unfortunately, what it’s been doing is to reach into computers using what looks like stealthily installed software.</div><div> </div><div>This is the second time Lenovo has been caught red-handed slipping in proprietary software on devices. Reported by an Ars Technica, a well-known technology review and news portal, the software seems to be auto downloading on Windows 10 computers, even when a machine is wiped clean and Windows is reinstalled. A similar problem caused a stir in February because a piece of “Bloatware” called “Superfish” was opening up a computer to potential hackers.</div><div> </div><div>There was outrage enough over Superfish, and now there are reports of this second instance of auto downloading software – not something that is likely to help Lenovo’s image in any way. There are been some considerable mistrust of Chinese-made devices because of the companies are seen to be capable of collecting data on users. Installing software in this manner could also open up a machine to the possibility that others could do the same.</div><div> </div><div>Lenovo had apologised and issued a security patch to fix this vulnerability. But what Lenovo should worry about its own vulnerability to the loss of users’ trust and a possible impact on its PC market share.</div>
