If you were one of the 16M consumers in Q4 2014 that recently bought a new Lenovo model before January, and you thought there was a material improvement in the "shopping experience using their visual discovery techniques." it was by design.
Specifically, If you owned one of the models listed in the below Lenovo release, you likely had the Superfish spyware program installed on your machine. Superfish is spyware program supported by any web browser, which alters your search results to show you different ads than you would otherwise see.
Superfish also tampers with your computer's security enabling online attackers to track your web traffic, obtain sensitive information, such as your online banking details, and even infiltrate your computer.
Lenovo has since made a significant PR and operational scramble to rectifiy the situation by making consumers aware of the security concerns and provide details on how to uninstall the program.
Yet, this incident clearly raises a more fundamental issue relating to delicate element of trust that plays a key part in the digital marketing ecosystem. With the publishing side of digital advertising already affected by the conerns of online fraud, rattling the consumer's confidence with potential security threats is clearly does not inspire confidene in a growing industry.
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