*Ø* Blogmanac | Has Google's toolbar gone rogue?

"Sadly, Google has taken a page from the book read by the bad guys. Their wonderful toolbar has gone rogue in the last several versions. Google Toolbar 2.0 includes an update function that checks Google's servers for updates, downloads those updates, and installs them automatically. This is all done with no user participation. That in itself is fine. However, the Google toolbar doesn't allow you to disable this ...

"This is unacceptable. It doesn't matter that it is one of the good guys doing this. It is unethical to install software on a machine without the owner's permission, and it is even more unethical to do it without their knowledge.

"The reasons for requiring the updater not be disabled are irrelevant. People spend thousands of dollars on their computers and should not be at risk of the latest and greatest version of someone's software installing itself silently and destroying their system due to an unexpected conflict."

Source

[I dips me lid to Mary Ann Sabo for sending in this and the preceding item.]