Opening thoughts. Microsoft had to step in, and that itself was induction enough that LG has gone too far with the whole adware saga on Windows PCs. Sometime back, users started reporting that LG was generating pop-up ads on Windows PCs to download other apps such as McAfee. “Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. We’ve connected with the team at LG and as an immediate next step, they have agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up from their app. We appreciate LG working with us toward a shared goal of a better experience for our mutual customers. We will keep improving here with our ecosystem partners,” wrote Pavan Davuluri in a post on X.
Basically, if someone who had recently purchased an LG monitor connected it to their Windows computer, the display would download a utility app to control features and functionality. That app was being used to deliver these ads. It is not clear if LG has temporarily disabled these, or it’s a permanent change. Now that Microsoft isn’t at all impressed. Good to see Microsoft stepping in after users noticed this—crucial for the overall health and behaviour of third-party hardware on Windows.
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EDITOR’S MARGIN
I’ve said it many a times before, and I’ve no hesitation in repeating it. That Google is the most sensible AI company, by far. Illustration after real-world illustration of deploying Gemini and AI tools for very specific use-cases that help users in particular ways. And Google does all that without the loud chest thumping that’s slowly becoming the hallmark of many AI companies. Yet another example this week, with Gemini arriving in the Google Pay app in India. That makes it the very first payments platform to implement AI on this scale, and with this much relevance.
