[BadVista Advocate] BadVista blog post

[Joshua Gay]

I wanted to let you know that a new blog post has been added:

  http://badvista.fsf.org/blog/stealth-updates-deletions

With the full text at the bottom of this email. Feel free to blog, digg, 
and slashdot it :-)

Thanks!

Joshua Gay


      Stealth updates, deletions

Microsoft's Nate Clinton has used a bogus excuse to explain why Windows 
Update installs stealth updates without the user's consent. He writes in 
the Microsoft Update Product Team Blog 
<http://blogs.technet.com/mu/archive/2007/09/13/how-windows-update-keeps-itself-up-to-date.aspx>:

    One question we have been asked is why do we update the client code
    for Windows Update automatically if the customer did not opt into
    automatically installing updates without further notice?  The answer
    is simple: any user who chooses to use Windows Update either
    expected updates to be installed or to at least be notified that
    updates were available.


Well, if Microsoft understands that a person wants to decide to install 
their own updates, then they should be respectful of that user's choice 
and be consistent with their policy. Being consistent means that they 
should tell the user that an update to Windows Update is available and 
that if they want it to continue to work properly, that this update 
should be installed. Maybe the user will decide to stop using Windows 
Update altogether, or maybe they will install the update. Either way, it 
should be the user that decides, not Microsoft.

However, this should come as no surprise. There is other evidence that 
these types of policies apply to other pieces of Microsoft software as 
well, including Windows Defender. In the End-User License Agreement for 
Windows Vista it states that after searching your computer for software, 
if Defender finds any "potentially unwanted software rated 'high' or 
'severe,' [it] will automatically be removed after scanning unless you 
change the default setting." Where "high" and "severe," are undefined 
terms, and where the default behavior is to delete the software (instead 
of just quarantining the software and asking the user if they want to 
delete it). It gets worse. Later on in the same section they warn you 
that Defender may remove or disable software that is "not potentially 
unwanted software." In layman's terms, "not potentially unwanted 
software," is also known as  "your software."

At least Microsoft stays consistent with one policy: keep the user 
confused and unclear on all policies.
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