Not only that, but the guy continues to use the same install of windows after discovering the issue. He then has more issues with the laptop and returns it for ANOTHER Samsung.
First off, if I even remotely sense that there is malware on my machine it gets an immediate format. Second, why in Thor's name would you buy from Samsung again? I get the impression he's a guy with a little knowledge that thinks he has this whole computer thing figured out. If you are going to make these types of allegations and publish them, you have to approach it scientifically and verify your results.
Maybe I'm cynical, but I'm going to tend towards "guy becomes very unhappy with samsung for unknown reason, guy lies about keylogger".
Because I agree - if you were going to tend to make a big fuss about this (as I would) and I had determined it looked like Samsung installed the first one (as he claimed) in no way would I ever get samsung laptop #2. Not to mention, not even checking the contents of the directory before reporting it widely.
Pretty decent approach to tarnish their reputation too, if it happened that way. To get an estimate of reach, the HN story "Samsung installs keyloggers" currently has 477 votes - it seems quite unlikely the retraction will get that much exposure.
First off, if I even remotely sense that there is malware on my machine it gets an immediate format. Second, why in Thor's name would you buy from Samsung again? I get the impression he's a guy with a little knowledge that thinks he has this whole computer thing figured out. If you are going to make these types of allegations and publish them, you have to approach it scientifically and verify your results.