Mozilla Chief: Safari Push Borders on Malware Tactics

Last week, Mozilla CEO John Lilly slammed the Cupertino, Calif., company for violating the trust of its iTunes customers by slipping Safari into an Apple Software Update application.

The accusation isn't focusing on Apple's use of its Software Update application to deliver Safari to end users. At issue is Apple's placement of the Safari update next to an iTunes update with a check box pre-checked, and then offering up both a Safari download as well as as the iTunes update as a single, clickable install.

Look Where You're Clicking

This scenario may seem innocuous enough until it comes to light that Windows operating system users who didn't have any version of Safari already installed got the pre-checked option to install it anyway. It all happened through a program that's presumably all about software updates and not about installing brand-new applications.

"What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong. It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that's bad -- not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web," Lilly noted on his Mozilla blog.

"Apple has made it incredibly easy -- the default, even -- for users to install ride along software that they didn't ask for, and maybe didn't want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices," he added.

Apple did not return MacNewsWorld calls seeking comment.

Firestorm of Activity

In his blog post, Lilly takes care to note his respect for Safari as a product, then provides a follow-up note about the virtues of competition in the marketplace. Firefox currently holds more market share than the tiny minority Safari commands, and both together still fall far short of reaching Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) browser, Internet Explorer.

Responses to Lilly's post include criticism that his comments are more about maintaining market share and, therefore, revenue from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) , which pays Mozilla for the handy built-in Google search bar at the top of the browser. That search bar is very similar to the built-in Google search bar at the top of Safari.

Potential money motivations aside, however, most of the nearly 300 comments on Lilly's initial blog post seem to reflect a certain outrage or disappointment in Apple's Safari push. Of course, most readers are also more likely to be Firefox-using Mozilla fans.

Just Whining?

"I think this is just a bunch of whining in my opinion," Sven Rafferty, founder of hyperSven and director of Internet technology for the company, told MacNewsWorld.

"Yes, Software Update will recommend non-installed updates, but why isn't John Lilly moaning about Windows Updates and its suggestions of Microsoft-based applications -- such as Media Player -- that are being suggested? Yes, he could say, 'Well, it's already on the hard drive,' but then that goes back to the antitrust lawsuit issue the founding company, Netscape, had with Microsoft," he added.

Shades of Gray

Still, Rafferty doesn't think this is a black and white issue.

"I think Apple needs to be more forthcoming and call it 'Apple Software Update' and maybe have a 'New Software' section," he explained. "But even without this, it's not that big of a deal. In the end, one doesn't even have to install Apple's Software Update and thus, the issue is gone."

The dustup has raised the issue of opting into applications (having to explicitly grant them access) versus opting out of them (having to explicitly deny them access).

"I don't know if I'd call it a terrible, heinous practice, but it does qualify as one of the dumber things that Apple has done recently. No matter how superior the company believes Safari to be, customers should be given the opportunity to opt into using it -- not opting out of an automatic download attached to an unrelated product," Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, told MacNewsWorld.

"It's worthwhile considering how Microsoft might be treated if they tried something similar -- public drawing, quartering and burning at the stake would be likely responses. And in fact, the company's most recent update of Explorer, the V8 beta, was carefully offered as an opt-in feature by Microsoft Live Update, not automatically installed," he noted.

Something Wicked This Way Comes?

"The Safari/iTunes download may have been a simple, stupid mistake," King said.

"If so, then no big deal. But if it provides evidence that Apple is attempting to leverage its leadership in music downloads to increase its position in other areas, then the company deserves to have its knuckles and reputation rapped severely," he concluded.