Sneaky Apple?

Remember the fuss over Sony and their sneaky placement of spyware in an audio CD?

Recently we updated our Windows PCs running iTunes to the latest version of iTunes 7 - another attempt to get back the ripping speed lost with the later version. All went smoothly, except there doesn't seem to be any significant speed increase.

This morning when I powered up the PCs I noticed that little Windows message saying a new program had been installed. I looked and found that Apple have created a Windows version of the Apple Update service we're familiar with from OS X. No problem with that, it's a helpful facility.

No, my issue is that I don't recall being asked if I wanted this feature on my PCs. I'm sure it's somewhere in all that small print nobody ever reads but shouldn't Apple have made this crystal clear? Seems like a very Microsoft tactic for the white knights of Apple to pull.