Periodically, Adobe updates Adobe AIR with new features or fixes to minor problems. The Automatic Notification and Update feature allows Adobe to automatically notify users when an updated version of Adobe AIR is available.
Updates to Adobe AIR ensure that Adobe AIR works properly and often contain important changes to security. Adobe recommends that users update to the latest version of Adobe AIR whenever a new version is available, especially when a security update is mentioned.
By default, when an AIR application is launched, the runtime checks if an update is available. It performs this check if it has been more than two weeks since the last update check. If an update is available, AIR downloads the update in the background.
Users can disable the auto-update capability by using the AIR SettingsManager application. The AIR SettingsManager application is available for download at http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/applications/SettingsManager/SettingsManager.air.
The normal installation process for Adobe AIR includes connecting to http://airinstall.adobe.com to send basic information about the installation environment such as operating system version and language. This information is only transmitted once per installation and it allows Adobe to confirm that the installation was successful. No personally identifiable information is collected or transmitted.
If you distribute your application with a captive runtime bundle, the captive runtime is not updated automatically. For the security of your users, you must monitor the updates published by Adobe and update your application with the new runtime version when a relevant security change is published.