Anyone get annoyed at bundled toolbars and rubbish?

Duke said:
..Google (which is fine I guess)...
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is it though?

6. Google's toolbar is spyware:
With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf, and yes, it reads your cookie too. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect to Google (which is many times a day). Most software vendors, and even Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google. Any software that updates automatically presents a massive security risk.
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I must admit i have never used the toolbar myself, and always reject any bundled software that i don't need. So I don't know if, for example, these features are enabled by default. But if this is still the case, and is enabled by default, then for the average user this surely poses a significant privacy threat that they don't even know about when they see this great 'new toolbar' to make their lives somehow easier.

(source)
 
v0n said:
iTunes need Bonjour to discover other shared iTune libraries on the network.
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But I don't need that. So why do I not get the opportunity not to install it? I don't mind Apple bundling stuff into iTunes but I want to say, "no, don't want that, thanks".
 
Alex74 said:
is it though?



I must admit i have never used the toolbar myself, and always reject any bundled software that i don't need. So I don't know if, for example, these features are enabled by default. But if this is still the case, and is enabled by default, then for the average user this surely poses a significant privacy threat that they don't even know about when they see this great 'new toolbar' to make their lives somehow easier.
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Pretty much anything relating to google is a privacy threat if you're that anal about it. Though regarding that quote surely auto updating software without user intervention is better for the masses than people who don't bother to patch their software and get infected anyway.

I'm not sure about you but most 'normal' computer users I know have no idea what software updates are or that they should be doing them.
 
It sickens me when I see people with so many toolbar addons that the actual vierwing area of a browser window is smaller than teh Menu area because there are so many toolbars.

And the annoying thing is that there is absolutely no need for the end user to have more than one... Even the bloody search bar has only one showing but half a dozen engines to choose from... Jeez.. Whats wrong with setting up google as your home page, then all you need to do is CTRL-T for a whole new window ready to search?
 
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