with one's knowledge, without one's knowledge...its relative...the installer asks if you want to have your drive searched for media files, hence one is given the chance to be aware, and its up to said user to pay attention...

on the flip side, I agree with your sentiments...I've always thought that little algorithm in installers was lamer...if one wants files shared, then they should add them themselves and not trust a program to blindly start sharing everything...