A blog on zdnet.com alleged that it has confirmed the existence of stealth updates by Microsoft.

It is alarming because regardless of your preferences and settings for Windows Update, Microsoft can activate it without your knowledge and then update files right under your nose without you even being informed about it. And it is even more alarming because Windows Update will be a program that most people will allow to bypass their desktop firewall.

Simply put, Windows Update is now behaving like a rogue program aka mal-ware. If this is true, it means Microsoft can then update any file on your system. The consequences of that maybe that you might suddenly discover on the next reboot, software being rendered inoperable because it’s not compatible with the updated files from Microsoft (or because Microsoft didn’t like them). There might even be the possibility that after you restart your system, you end up staring down a blue screen of death. When that happens, user may end up spending loads of time reinstalling their systems just so they can use it again. I shudder at the thought of the need to call Microsoft up again to re-activate Windows.

Anyway, even if there are no insidious intent on the part of Microsoft, how are users going to rollback if the updates introduce some unforeseeable conditions on the user’s PC? Obviously, the goons in Redmond hasn’t consider that, because when the users don’t know what’s broken and who broke it, they won’t go to Microsoft to get a solution! What bastards!!

And that’s as if this public relations boo-boo isn’t bad enough on its own. I am trying to imagine how outraged privacy advocates are right now.