Commentary--Apple Included Widget "Spyware" in Mac OS X 10.4.7?

Not really. According to this Apple KnowledgeBase Article about Mac OS X 10.4.7,

You can now verify whether or not a Dashboard widget you downloaded is the same version as a widget featured on (www.apple.com) before installing it.

This says nothing about how this new widget feature has been implemented. According to a number of list and forum posts and Web articles (c.f. this one), Apple has implemented this new widget feature by automatically checking behind the scenes every so often.

Some would call this feature spyware because it contacts Apple without their knowledge. However, the Software Update feature in Mac OS X does the same thing. The only difference, and some claim this is significant, is that Software Update is an obvious feature and it can be disabled by unchecking it in System Preferences.

While Apple's notice of the new feature is arcane and there is no simple way to disable the daemon that checks for widget versions, we think those calling the widget-checking feature spyware are going overboard. Still, we hope that Apple cleans this feature up a bit by making it more obvious and optional for those who do not want it for whatever reason. [Bill Fox]