I love this thread. Every important question for privacy-conscious power users is raised in here: are automatic updates safe, how should software obtain consent to act on your behalf, how can power users keep up with the arms race of privacy settings, is phone-home inherently sleazy.
This user is running a firewall / connection observer (little snitch) -- as more people adopt tools like that + ad blockers, and as businesses figure out whether and how to serve those users, the norms for this stuff will get worked out.
For now, businesses benefit tremendously from surveillance for both sleazy and non-sleazy reasons and are totally incentivized to understate the potential harms and the ways in which they use what they collect.
This user is running a firewall / connection observer (little snitch) -- as more people adopt tools like that + ad blockers, and as businesses figure out whether and how to serve those users, the norms for this stuff will get worked out.
For now, businesses benefit tremendously from surveillance for both sleazy and non-sleazy reasons and are totally incentivized to understate the potential harms and the ways in which they use what they collect.