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The Superfish Funder List

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Re: The Superfish Funder List

#61

Post by murbard2 »

ffumarola wrote: post #58
murbard2 wrote: post #57

Why is Superfish getting all of the heat, while Komodia gets comparatively very little? A product that injects ads in your web traffic is crapware, but the scandal here isn't that superfish was crapware, the scandal is the security hole it introduced, which compromised Lenovo users. Yes, we all hate crapware, but there's a big difference between bothering people with sneaky, unwanted, ads, and opening the doors for m…

It's not just that Komodia used the same root cert. It goes a bit deeper than that: https://blog.filippo.io/komodia-superfish-ssl-validation-is-...

I was wondering if they even did the validation properly on the Internet facing side. Turns out they don't, wow.

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#62

Post by murbard2 »

rayiner wrote: post #53
madaxe_again wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jingoism.

Hardly. Countries inculcate values, educate people on the public dime, support R&D, etc. People should be proud when those policies bear fruit. E.g. Sergei Brin's family emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, because of Soviet discrimination against Jews. E.g. they were graded harder on university entrance exams, or given tougher exams altogether. He went to public high school and college, and went to graduate school…

Because they overwhelmingly had nothing to do with it.

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#63

Post by rayiner »

murbard2 wrote: post #62
rayiner wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly. Countries inculcate values, educate people on the public dime, support R&D, etc. People should be proud when those policies bear fruit. E.g. Sergei Brin's family emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, because of Soviet discrimination against Jews. E.g. they were graded harder on university entrance exams, or given tougher exams altogether. He went to public high school and college, and went to graduate school…

Because they overwhelmingly had nothing to do with it.

If Brin had stayed in Russia, it's almost certain he would not have founded Google. Some American, on the other hand, likely would have.

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#64

Post by hnnewguy »

comboy wrote: post #49

Apart from discouraging future VCs, legit question - do you think those listed ones had any idea about how does it exactly works? I mean, you need to be careful what you support, so I think that list is great anyway, just wondering how it usually looks like.

It's their obligation as owners to know what their portfolio companies are up to. When the big investors who supply capital to these funds ask questions, "We don't know what they are up to" is not a reasonable answer.

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#65

Post by Pxtl »

So what the hell do we buy now? HP's quality has hit rock bottom and is starting to dig, Lenovo is doing their best to destroy the Thinkpad brand, Asus is incapable of making a device without at least one fatal flaw... is Apple the only one making laptops that aren't garbage anymroe?

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#66

Post by patcheudor »

ffumarola wrote: post #58
murbard2 wrote: post #57

Why is Superfish getting all of the heat, while Komodia gets comparatively very little? A product that injects ads in your web traffic is crapware, but the scandal here isn't that superfish was crapware, the scandal is the security hole it introduced, which compromised Lenovo users. Yes, we all hate crapware, but there's a big difference between bothering people with sneaky, unwanted, ads, and opening the doors for m…

It's not just that Komodia used the same root cert. It goes a bit deeper than that: https://blog.filippo.io/komodia-superfish-ssl-validation-is-...

Also covered on HN first:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9078536

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#67

Post by at-fates-hands »

fooqux wrote: post #48
keslag wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Publicly shaming Comcast doesn't seem to be working, at all. I think it's good in theory, but doesn't work so well in practice.

You and the parent are both right. The problem with Comcast is that many people (I being one of them) have no choice in the matter. It doesn't matter how much I despise my ISP, for they are literally the only game in town. My vocation dictates I have high-speed internet, thus I'm forced to work with Comcast. Shaming Lenovo or its partners can make a difference because people do have a choice here. There are many lapt…

>>> for they are literally the only game in town

I live in the Midwest and thought the same thing. After some research, I found several smaller companies who offer high speed internet, including the local telecom company.

I guess it boils down to if you're willing to pay more or pay the same and get slightly slower speeds without having to deal with Comcast and their horrible customer service.

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#68

Post by driverdan »

finnn wrote: post #2

>CoinBase, an similar anti-privacy company Really? How is looking at public blockchain data at all similar to installing malware?

CoinBase does far more than just look at the blockchain. They go beyond know your customer (KYC) requirements and actively

1. Ask users about income sources and Bitcoin usage, even for low volumes far below legal requirements.

2. Monitor and analyze blockchain transactions for activity they disagree with and close accounts with BTC in these chains, with no prior notice and no evidence of wrongdoing.

When a company is more aggressive at removing users than Chase bank you know there is a problem.

Re: The Superfish Funder List

#70

Post by rpedroso »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #39
rpedroso wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that there will be legal ramifications to discourage this kind of behavior, but ultimately, the vendor that packaged Superfish with the computers is a Chinese company who will probably claim that this kind of thing is permitted by their EULA.

What does it matter that Lenovo is chinese and Superfish Israeli?

Although Superfish was founded in Israel, they're headquartered in Palo Alto now.

The nationality of Lenovo is relevant insofar as it affects the applicability of US law. IANAL so I can't say how relevant that fact is, but I suspect it complicates litigation..

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