The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday formally approved a settlement with Lenovo in a dispute over pre-loaded software that erupted in the summer of 2014.
“As part of the settlement with the FTC, Lenovo is prohibited from misrepresenting any features of software preloaded on laptops that will inject advertising into consumers’ Internet browsing sessions or transmit sensitive consumer information to third parties,” the FTC announced.
“If the company preinstalls this type of software, the order requires the company to get consumers’ affirmative consent before the software runs on their laptops. In addition, the company is required for 20 years to implement a comprehensive software security program for most consumer software preloaded on its laptops. The security program will also be subject to third-party audits.”
Last September, Lenovo agreed to pay some $3.5 million to settle the case. Then FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny blasts Lenovo for what she called “omissions” that “were deceptive.”
The FTC challenged Lenovo in August 2014 when the company. which operates one of its two corporate headquarters in Morrisville, began selling laptops loaded with so-called adware from a California firm called Superfish.
The adware called VisualDiscovery “delivered pop-up ads to consumers of similar-looking products sold by Superfish’s retail partners whenever a consumer’s cursor hovered over the image of a product on a shopping website. For example, if a consumer’s cursor hovered over a product image while the consumer viewed owl pendants on a shopping website like Amazon.com, VisualDiscovery would overlay pop-up ads onto that website of other similar-looking owl pendants sold by Superfish’s retail partners,” the FTC noted.
In the settlement, which runs 11 pages, the FTC noted that the “Consent Agreement” includes a “statement by Respondent that it neither
admits nor denies any of the allegations in the Complaint, except as specifically stated in this Decision and Order, and that only for purposes of this action, it admits the facts necessary to establish jurisdiction.”
