I suspect it'll be "Corporations control Internet and our private life" well before tomorrow. Domestic operators do that for ages with their branded routers and AFAIK DOCSIS is unimaginable without (part of) this functionality. I went berzerk when discovered such a checkbox in my home router, two days later I checked it on again and never looked back. How often do I check for firmware upgrades for for my home router? Almost never. Do I backup my config? No. Do I disassemble binary blob before upgrade. No. And I consider myself above-average Internet user. It doesn't really matter how do I brick my hardware and implementing authentication on the vendor site to download the firmware does a better job with gathering sensitive data honestly. Automatic updates is pretty much a common feature these days, it's good to know what it means for a user but is hardly game-breaking.