SAN FRANCISCO — PC users will see more warnings about the dangers of keeping outdated software on their machines, under a legal settlement negotiated by tech giant Oracle and regulators at the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC says Oracle Corp. deceived consumers for several years by promising that updating their Java software would keep them safe from malware and hacking attacks. Until last year, the FTC says, the update tool provided by Oracle did not remove some older versions of Java, which meant PCs were still vulnerable.
Many consumers aren’t aware they use Java, which comes pre-installed on many PCs and helps with the operation of web-based functions, including online calculators, games, chatrooms and even viewing 3-D images. The FTC estimates Java can be found on more than 850 million PCs.
PC users can remove old versions of Java by updating to the current version, Java 8, or by using the tool at .
