Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo is again caught installing dubious software on laptops. The company was previously found installing Superfish spyware on laptops and some Lenovo computers came with a BIOS rootkit. The latter was used to get Lenovo's bloatware on computers even on computers with a fresh Windows installation.
IT-expert Michael Horowitz found out that Lenovo installs even more dubious software. He found tracking software on a refurbished laptop installed by Lenovo. Horowitz had bought two refurbished laptops from IBM that contained a clean installation of Windows 7 Professional. When analyzing the software on the computer Horowitz found that an application called 'Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64' was scheduled to run daily.
The application description states that the software sends data to Lenovo every day. Horowitz also found a DLL file that contained the company name Omniture. This is a company that specializes in web analytics and online marketing. "So, while there may not be extra ads on ThinkPads, there is some monitoring and tracking", Horowitz writes.
"On the one hand this is surprising because the machines were refurbished and sold by IBM. On the other hand, considering Lenovo's recent history, it's not surprising at all", he continued.
Lenovo has put up a special page about the software. On this page the computer manufacturer writes, "in some cases, non-personal and non-identifying information about Lenovo software application usage is transmitted to Lenovo."
According to Lenovo this isn't a problem, the company writes, "this is working as designed. The behavior is documented in the End User License Agreement that all users must read and accept prior to using their Lenovo system for the first time. "
Nevertheless, the company provides a solution, users with administrators can remove the scheduled tasks of the Lenovo Customer Feedback Program.
