In the new digital age, all businesses are trying to market more effectively to anyone who uses a computer and the internet. Last week you probably heard about Lenovo and Superfish. Bad, bad, bad. Now the stories are starting to come out about how this is not a one-time situation and it is actually a bit common.
In case you haven’t read up on it, essentially Lenovo decided to bypass basic user security for HTTPS website (just about any website with data worth protecting). HTTPS works by assuring that a user verifies that they are communicating with the correct server through the issuing of certificates that your browser recognizes. This allows for secure, encrypted communication to occur. Superfish (and programs like it) spoof the certificate to make it look like you are only communicating with the site you are on but in reality the program is there in the middle reading and seeing everything. (Yes, I know I’m not exactly right but this covers the basics. For the real detail hit up the wikipedia page for HTTP Secure.)
So why do companies do this? Marketing. They are trying to get a leg up in making more advertising dollars than their competitors. If you think flyers through USPS or email spam is annoying, welcome to the new version of that. And the new version is crazy scary and can corrupt the entire web. And the companies responsible (like Lenovo) are not the first you think about when it comes to breaking the internet.
Just to top this off, even if they *may* be breaking the law no legal system is going to do more than *maybe* issue a fine which means that as long as they made more in revenue than the fine they’ll carry on with this type of thinking.
Yes, I agree that. Too much marketing will make customers overwhelmed and may be disgusted with that much information. That’s why so many companies focus on thinking up with creative and innovative marketing ways to attract customers.