Friday, September 14, 2007

Stealth Microsoft Updates...Big Deal!

It's been all over the technology news article in the past day. Microsoft has been updating your system even if you don't want it to. Bloggers and professional journalists alike are complaining that this is an invasion of privacy and is unethical in regards to what a company should be doing for the user.

Guess what? It's not an invasion of privacy! Guess what? It's not unethical!

When you buy a product from Microsoft, you are simply buying the rights to use that product. That is why when you buy a copy of Microsoft Office, XP, Vista or Server, you are usually given a certain number of copies that can be distributed among computers you own.

Ranging from one copy to enterprise editions, these products are there for you to utilize and increase your productivity. So what is the problem with stealth updates?

I can understand if you are an IT professional that runs images or test machinery that is meant to check on limitations and run diagnostics. The last thing you want is to have updates running in the background and you not knowing about it. But if you work in IT, shouldn't you know that you have options? Scott Gilbertson of Compiler, a blog on Wired.com, states it quite well by saying make sure you hit the "NEVER" option on updates.

So before you complain and worry about this "stealth update uphevel" that is being spread, think about it. Your personal information isn't being consumed and distributed to third party companies by Microsoft. You are simply getting updates that they feel is necessary to run Windows effectively.

I'm not a Microsoft clone and most of the time, my issues only run with Microsoft products, but this particular issue requires thought and common sense. You don't own the Microsoft product, you own the rights to use it and Microsoft still reserves the right to update it if necessary.

I could be wrong. PROVE IT!

Have a great day!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... You do bring up a good point. Most people today like their privacy, and some are basically calling everyone a conspirator that does stuff like that, so it wouldn't be a surprise if everyone got mad at Microsoft for doing stealth updates. I also say either Microsoft really wants their users to get the latest PC-enhancing updates, or that they screwed up so badly somewhere they have to fix it secretly because they don't want to say they screwed up.