Opt-out is one of the techniques used by spammers today. "Oh, if they don't want it, they can opt out." This is an invasion of privacy (in the general sense) and is generally (as you have found out) met with some level of hostility.

In general, once I have downloaded a chunk of software, I don't want it talking to the outside world unless I have allowed it to. This is why I run firewalls and have detectors on the network stack for every machine I own. Opt-out flies in the face of that. Opt-in places the decision back in the hands of the user.

Opt-in is the more "community-friendly" approach, and I thank you for your update.

--MidLifeXis