Upgrade to Windows 10 & a bit of Lenovo adware will be the last of your privacy worries.

Wrong.

They have been caught 3 times over the last x years on a few of their models. The major one was they installed Supafish on a few models which showed targeted advertising based on users habits, just the same as Google has been doing for years. The main issue was how they did it, using MITM technology that could be exploited by hackers. I actually believe this was intentional and 'suggested' to them by the Chinese intelligence agency so they could try to infiltrate other governments IT infrastructure (quite a few stopped using Lenovo machines after this issue).

The second issue was when they installed firmware based software that automatically downloaded drivers and Lenovo system software. They used the same technique that Sony used a few years ago to try and stop people playing pirated music, something called a rootkit. It was coined as a 'bootkit' and meant to be able to survive a total system wipe. It seemed to be for good intentions, in the event of a system failure/reinstall it would try to automatically reinstall drivers direct from Lenovo's servers using non personally identifiable information (machine serial, model etc). But yet again implemented badly, it could be exploited to open up your machine to attacks by 3rd parties.

The third time was tracking software installed on some laptops... Apple do this as well on phones, its for many good reasons and can be disabled. Their failings on these was not informing the user in plain English, and also not giving an easy way to remove them if you so wished, both of these have been now provided by Lenovo.

Its all Chinese whispers (excuse the pun!).

Regards
Flea

Worth noting that EVERY windows machine with a webcam has the capability to spy on you. They can see you through your webcam whenever they want, even if you open the machine up and cut the cable to the webcam serious.
#Illuminati

No longer available now, but, I would put this in the "fair price for what it is, marginally better than similar deals, and sensible option because you can spread the payments out" category

There are various specs for this model with the lower end version recently going for under £130. This is the higher spec with better processor and more ram.

I'm holding out for it to come down in price as it is an old model now but I prefer to have a laptop with a proper hard drive rather than using the cloud for storage.

Not voting either way as I think it should be cheaper.

​all lenovo windows machines do

​you should read about lenovo and their spyware

Well you're doing a good job of sounding like you are.

This is not a good price for this laptop. Trust me. I bought one, installed an ssd in it, then ebayed it.

Can usually be found for ~£129.

It's not bad laptop once its got an ssd in it - but opening the back will void the warranty, so you might as well buy off ebay if that is your plan.

But seriously, when you can get the Lenovo 100s for £99, or the HP pavilion x2 for £199, buying this - at this price - makes no sense.

people must love spyware

Thats not as good value as this. This has 4GB RAM and 320GB HDD. That Lenovo s21e has 2GB RAM and 32GB HDD... Plus this has a touchscreen.

What's the difference between the one in argos and this one ? It's for my 10 year old for homework and games when his not on the xbox x

HP, tesco, Argos have the Lenovo s21e for £129.99.

Not saying this is a bad deal. After all, this isn't a netbook per se, but the hardware itself is more or less the same

This appears to be even more expensive than every other retailer which has opted in to Black Friday discounting. Netbooks with the N2XXX series are going for £149.99 left, right and centre

You occasionally get a stonking deal from QVC. This looks like one of them. 3x£50 payment scheme as well