Mozilla director of community development Asa Dotzler is concerned about the unintended installation of software on PCs. While Microsoft and Apple are named as usual culprits for this, Google was also singled out as well for this practice.
It's surprising to hear at first, since Google doesn't have many natively installed applications. But when someone installs Chrome, it appears that a plugin for Firefox called the Google Update Plugin is installed as well. There appears to be a way to remove this plugin on the Mozilla forums, but the next time Chrome is updated it will return.
According to section 11.1 of Chrome's End User License Agreement:
Chrome may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the Services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the Services.
Still, I do not understanding the purpose for Google to install an update plugin for Firefox, and sneaky persistent installations are probably not the best way to go. Agreed?
via InformationWeek
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