Insisting that Apple put scare dialogs in front of millions of users before doing something that is pretty darn safe is some real douchebaggery. Either it scares users into declining a feature that they'd probably actually appreciate having if they weren't required to click past a scary dialog, or it's one more step towards training users to unconsciously approve dialogs warning them of dangerous actions.

If you care so much about the possibility of a feature using the internet (as opposed to what would actually be a privacy violation, which is selling your information or queries to third parties, instead of, ya know, just using it to provide the functionality you're trying to use), then it's your responsibility to actually learn what this stuff is doing.

But you admitted to installing a brand new major OS update without reading anything at all about it. It's not Apple's fault that you chose to be so intentionally ignorant.

If you don't want the existing OS functionality to change, then don't install major OS updates. If you install major OS updates, then expect functionality to change. And the most cursory of searches would let you find out what's new and updated in the OS. Perhaps you should read the list to find out if any other functionality you use has been modified: http://www.apple.com/osx/all-features/