> And wouldn’t it be normal to have basic telemetry, enough to know how many active users you have?

I don't think this is normal. It may be common, but I don't think it is normal. I find this deeply creepy for an OS vendor to think it's okay to push an update that collects data passively from machines. This isn't even collecting telemetry on active users. This is collecting telemetry on installed software.

I get that the Overton window in this shifted a long time ago, and in the tech community I'm in the minority, and especially on hacker news where so many people work for tech companies that track their users every way they can, but I am saying I find it deeply concerning that this sort of thing is a "run of the mill" telemetry update.

I'm with you. I hate that this is just accepted. This kind of thing is why I run linux.

I'd go so far as to say this has antitrust implications. MS is using their dominance in one market (operating systems) to collect market data about another market (office software). Their competitors (Google, Zoho, etc) do not have the luxury to scan most of the world's computers on a whim to see what software is installed.

Google has way more power to collect data on the software they care about than MS does

Google is absolutely doing the same, not that that's an excuse, just an observation. Chrome has dominant market share and it's scanning your computer for "harmful" software, running processes and reporting that data to Google.

  chrome://settings/cleanup

this isn't an update to office, its just spyware for microsoft.

>"This update will run one time silently without installing anything on the user's device,"

by definition not an update