41–50 of 99 posts
Headline should be: FT allows Lenovo to sell computers with secret hardware again, should they choose to. No one went in jail (try intercepting someone's Https connections) and no crippling fine. Just an agreement that requires consent...you can drive trucks through the loopholes. "Yes, I want to speed up my internet" is one and 90% would click yes /install.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
During the peak of frothy VC investments, our hypothetical couch startup will have the money to hire ML and AI experts. 1) Sell the couch at a loss. 2) Acquire customer voice data. 3) Run it through ML/AI 4) ???? 5) Pivot the company.
You could have some inflatable cushions that can only be controlled by the cloud.
It's a world of opportunity...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN: I don't like secret laws. Also HN: I don't like when they don't invent secret laws to punish people I'm mad at.
How is a law giving the ftc more power here a secret law?
For people wondering why there was no hefty fine, it's probably because the FTC had no authority to impose one. Except with regard to children, the FTC isn't specifically empowered to protect "privacy rights." The FTC brought a complaint against Lenovo under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which addresses "unfair competition" and "unfair practices." Historically, that meant false advertising or other abusive practices set…
Personally, they've lost my business. I used and loved Thinkpads for many years, but I no longer use them and now recommend against their purchase. Lenovo has a huge trust gap to repair.
Personally, they've lost my business. I used and loved Thinkpads for many years, but I no longer use them and now recommend against their purchase. Lenovo has a huge trust gap to repair.
While I agree that Superfish was a disaster, keep in mind that it did not affect the ThinkPad line at all. From what I heard, the consumer and business lines have strong separation inside Lenovo. I have lost all trust in their consumer division, too. But it seems silly to me to discount ThinkPads based on the malware bundled with Lenovo's consumer offerings.
For people wondering why there was no hefty fine, it's probably because the FTC had no authority to impose one. Except with regard to children, the FTC isn't specifically empowered to protect "privacy rights." The FTC brought a complaint against Lenovo under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which addresses "unfair competition" and "unfair practices." Historically, that meant false advertising or other abusive practices set…
HN: I don't like secret laws. Also HN: I don't like when they don't invent secret laws to punish people I'm mad at.
With only a very small portion of the population able to both understand the implications of this type of tracking and how to circumnavigate it, I often wonder if there will eventually be a negative consequence akin to not establishing credit through purposely getting in debt. In 20 years, will you be blocked from opening certain accounts if the company can't find sufficient mined data on you?
next: being blocked from leaving a country.
This was documented by Lenovo: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13300357