[Hidden-tech] Lenovo pre-installed adware

[Tim Boudreau]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 7:56 AM, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:

> This whole thread is a clear argument *against* the idea of OEMs
> pre-installing *any* [O/S] software. Not that I expect end-users to be
> installing O/S (or really any) software either (that is often a completely
> different can of worms). What is really needed is a sort of 'Jiffy Lube'
> type
> of business for computers -- places where non-techies can go to have their
> computers 'serviced' -- from O/S installs to 'regular maintaince' (eg
> regular
> software updates and general admin work).  Someplace that is a
> 'disintersted
> third party', that is not in the pay of some outside interest that would
> have
> any influence relating to which O/S or what O/S (or other software)
> settings
> or default preferences, etc.
>
> Having an entity with a 'vested' interest installing any software is
> really a
> bad idea.
>

The problem with that is that anybody who does this sort of thing on a
reasonable scale will get so much money dangled in front of them to stop
being "disinterested" that they won't be able to resist it.

I talked with a company about doing some consulting for them recently,
which was an eye-opener.  Their entire business is this:  They buy ads by
the impression - showing someone an ad - for fractions of a penny, and sell
ads by the *click-through* for pennies and dollars.  Their entire business
is, in real-time, selecting ads to show to people that they are most likely
to click on.  They process 2-3-million clicks per second.  This is a
business worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  The way they make good
choices about ads is by buying information about people - from anti-virus
companies (who know the contents of every file on your computer, what you
run, download and what you buy), from vendors of the "crapware" and browser
toolbars, web sites, retail loyalty cards, gas cards, internet-enabled home
appliances and applications.  There is a huge market for any sort of
information about people that can make advertising platforms more
effective, and anybody who can get software installed on a popular brand of
PC out-of-the-box stands to make many millions of dollars.

Not many businesses will have the scruples to say no to that, especially if
they think their competitors won't.

I've said before, the Windows ecosystem is predators all the way down.
That's not hyperbole or prejudice, it's the design of the ecosystem - the
endgame of a system where being untrustworthy is rewarded is that nobody
will be trustworthy.  If you play in it as a software vendor and you don't
prey on your customers, and you don't become a predator, you will quickly
be out-competed by someone who is.

-Tim
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20150220/4d911b40/attachment.html