Does anyone else use Charter Communications as their ISP? I have been using Vista, and the default web search engine Windows Live Search. Yesterday I noticed that my searches were being hijacked by Charter. I played around and found out that this is a new "service" Charter is offering, but it only seems to affect Windows Live Search. If you use Google, or Yahoo, or whatever else as your default search engine it works fine, but Windows Live Search searches are hijacked and redirected unless you Opt Out (granted, I was never provided with a chance to Opt In).

I did a write-up on it on my About.com site, complete with screen shots, for anyone who is interested. http://netsecurity.about.com/od/webb...rterhijack.htm

I am curious though- does anyone know the legality of this? Would a default, no-notice, opt-in program (otherwise known as browser hijacking) be illegal, or just unethical? And, are there any legal implications of the fact that they have apparently singled out Microsoft to hijack, but left the other search engines alone?