Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lucas-be 4201 days ago
So the entire computer world had run like this for decade. why are people complaining about that now? Because Apple is doing strict verification of your code behaviour?

Yesterday adobe pdf viewer tell me that an update was available both on my mac and pc! So without asking my permission, this computer application (and many others) are querying the web...
3 comments
sharjeel 4201 days ago
The PCs didn't sit in your pocket all data with sensing GPS location, mic, camera, footsteps, discovery of bluetooth and wifi devices around you; neither were they single point of communication with the rest of the world.
link
lucas-be 4201 days ago
Not as long as you have not synchronized your phone with a cloud service (ICloud, Google drive, etc.) on which your PC/MAC is connect too.
link
pbhjpbhj 4201 days ago
>So without asking my permission //

You give your permission when you install it with auto-update enabled. I always disable auto-update.

link
marvy 4201 days ago
Yes, but this relies on the program being friendly enough to give you a choice. The OS is not blocking it, it voluntarily refrains. Some are not so polite. For instance, Google Chrome auto-updates without asking permission, and the only way to stop it on Windows is to edit some registry setting. It will update even when it is not running, which annoys me since I have Chrome installed and don't use it, and every so often my computer slows to a crawl, I open Task Manager, and see "aha, chrome decided to update". It doesn't even give me the courtesy of displaying a notice, so I don't have to waste 5 minutes of acting like a detective with task manager.
link
blueskin_ 4201 days ago
If you disable the google updater service, it stops chrome from intrusively background updating. Be careful though, as it often gets reenabled when you open chrome.
link
pbhjpbhj 4201 days ago
AFAIR Adobe Viewer does give that option, generally I'm sure you're right.
link
marvy 4201 days ago
Yes, they are one of the polite ones. Honestly very few are as obnoxious as Chrome.
link
mikeash 4201 days ago
People have been complaining about it for ages. Firewalls for outgoing connections are ancient technology. Like a lot of things that people rely on, the functionality is gradually moving into the OS proper.

A lot of people get upset at PC programs that do things like query for updates without permission.

link