this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Superfish
No connection to my initial question here - don't care of preinstalled systems anyway as they're wiped anyway after purchase. 😉
Sorry, I didn't think this would need further elaboration as to why it is relevant to your initial question.
Why would anyone trust this company to provide them with hardware that they will use for sensitive tasks that handle personal data?
Just because you are reinstalling the OS does not mean that you can implicitly trust the hardware. There are many forms that a manufacturer backdoor can take, and WPBT has shown that Windows is not clean after a reinstall. Similarly, Linux is vulnerable to binary injection by the UEFI firmware.
You don't have to agree with my opinion, and I wouldn't shame you for buying a Lenovo device, but you cannot dispute the relevance of my comment. I put it there for the benefit of people who don't know about Lenovo's prior scandals and who, like me, would take that as a signal to reject their products.
Got it and understand your thoughts, but putting Lenovo aside, is there any other recommendable vendor? Of course there can be any backdoor everywhere and yes, TPM is one factor that can be compromised these days, but which company to trust then? I know that there was some stuff on preinstalled devices from China (various smaller, cheaper vendors) even two or three years ago (compromised Windows, told to be an "accident", but considering this, you cannot trust any vendor at all. Apart from that, Lenovo is just an example because I like the look and the haptics of the devices since the stuff was still label with "IBM" some decades ago. Thanks for your thoughts anyway!