I'm getting a wee bit annoyed at Avast, my main virus-checking program. It seems to do its job very well but it has suddenly developed this new feature. Every so often, it will tell me that one of my browser add-ons has a "bad reputation" and that Avast highly recommends I allow the program to uninstall it. Today, it went after the one from Adobe that lets me read PDFs online. Adobe has a "bad reputation?"
But that's not the annoying part. If I say, "Sure, go on, delete it," it won't do that unless I allow it to change my homepage to www.yahoo.com and select either Bing or Yahoo as my new primary search provider. That's just extortion because, of course, your homepage and primary search provider have nothing to do with uninstalling a browser add-on.
My primary search provider is Google and my homepage is that wonderful website, www.newsfromme.com. I can almost hear Avast saying, "You want us to keep you safe, fella? Well then, you'd better not use your own website as your homepage. You've got to use the one that pays us! Nyah hah hah!" Instead, of course, I can just uninstall the add-on myself if I so choose. Or take the five seconds to switch my homepage and search engine back.
I'm used to other programs trying to get me to install their toolbar or use their site as my homepage. I just wasn't prepared for my virus checker, which reminds me constantly how it's there to protect me, trying to control me like that.