On Christmas Eve, Verizon snuck into my house and installed a Bing shortcut on my Blackberry


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At some point last night on Christmas Eve, Verizon snuck into my house and installed a Bing shortcut on my Blackberry Tour. That's right, without my consent, Verizon added a Bing shortcut to my list of apps. And I'm not the only one. It looks like it happened to Blackberry Storms last month, as well, but we probably didn't hear anything about it since nobody owns a Blackberry Storm anymore. I feel like I should be a little upset about this. I guess I'm a little miffed because they didn't even ask me if I wanted it (maybe an email would have been the way to go?). After all, it should be *my* choice to install apps, not Verizon's. This might be more acceptable if my phone was free, and this was a way to cover costs with my consent.

And no, Verizon. I'm not going to accept the answer that this is your Christmas present to me, nor that "maybe it was someone in my house" that installed it for me. I can assure you that my Santa barely knows how to unlock my Blackberry. I must admit though, this was an optimal time for Verizon to do this - at the beginning of a holiday weekend, likely in hopes of less media backlash.

In reality, it's not that big of an issue - it's just a shortcut...so far. But the thing is, this is more than likely a gateway to what they *will* do in the future without asking me. Uninstall competitive apps? Restrict me from apps that I want to download (hello, Apple)? In my opinion, it's really a gateway "crime". There's a good chance that Verizon is testing the waters to see what they can get away with. The terms of service most likely grant Verizon to this kind of nonsense, but there is a line of decency with consumers and I think this crosses it.