Lenovo computers are a bad choice if you’re worried about protecting your privacy, especially as the Windows 10 era dawns. That’s according to a report that Lenovo computers come preinstalled with software that uploads data about user behavior to the company.
The discovery was reported by Michael Horowitz, who noted that his Lenovo machine runs a program called Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64 on a recurring basis. Information about the program that is available through the operating system indicates that it “uploads Customer Feedback Program data to Lenovo.”
Digging deeper, Horowitz also reported that at least part of the data collected by the program appears to be associated with Omniture, an online marketing company.
Licenses included with the Lenovo software indicate that users can disable it using “Settings,” but do not explain where those settings are located. Horowitz wrote that the only way he found to disable the program on his computer was to reconfigure Windows so that the software was not run on a recurring basis.
A statement on Lenovo’s website mentions that the company may use software to “collect non-personally identifiable statistical usage data that is not tracked to any single customer or device.” It also says something vague about using such information “in preparation for Windows 10.” However, more specific or detailed information about what exactly Lenovo installs on users’ computers to collect information about them, or what the company does with the information, is not available.
It came to light earlier in 2015 that Lenovo preinstalled software on its computers called Superfish that posed security problems, and that the company modified BIOS software (the hard-wired code that gets your computer up and running when you first turn it on) so that users could not remove special Lenovo programs from their computers even if they reinstalled Windows.
Taken together, this recent history of privacy issues in Lenovo machines is a reminder of why proprietary code that no one can inspect is dangerous for privacy. It also shows how companies can bake monitoring software into the computers people buy with little disclosure.
If you’re really interested in privacy, we suggest relying on a fully open source platform, like Linux-based Tails OS.
This is a critical and well-documented exposé of Lenovo’s troubling history with user privacy. The combination of opaque data collection practices, BIOS-level modifications that prevent removal, and the previous Superfish scandal creates a deeply concerning pattern. It erodes the fundamental trust users must have in their hardware provider.
This situation perfectly illustrates the dangerous divide between user control and corporate overreach. While a user can (with difficulty) disable these programs in Windows, the BIOS-level persistence shows the problem is rooted deeper than the operating system.
This is where the conversation extends to the very heart of computing: the hardware itself. While this post focuses on consumer laptops, the same principle of trust applies at every level. For professionals building private, on-premises servers to avoid such cloud-based data collection, the choice of hardware is paramount.
This is why organizations with extreme data sensitivity—governments, financial institutions, research labs—often opt for server-grade hardware with transparent management and a focus on security. A processor like the Xeon 48 Core 2.0GHz https://serverorbit.com/cpus-and-processors/xeon-48-core/2-0ghz is built for controlled, internal deployments where data sovereignty is non-negotiable. Its value isn’t just in its 48 cores for parallel processing, but in the trust that it operates within a secured environment, running audited software, without phoning home to unknown third parties. The battle for privacy isn’t just fought in software; it’s won at the hardware level, by choosing platforms that prioritize user control over covert data harvesting.