A hosting company auto-installed and activated an AI plugin on 1M+ WP sites

Wow, auto-installing any plugin onto live production sites should never be opt-out. For those managing client sites under approved-plugin policies and PCI compliance this isn't just a minor inconvenience. "We sent an email" is not an alternative to consent, and pointing people to manually uninstall across hundreds of sites is not a good way to handle the situation...

Opt-out is not consent... This crazy behavior.

siteground appears to have automatically installed and activated its new "AI Agent" plugin across a huge number of customer WordPress sites.

the plugin was released on april 28, 2026 and quickly reached 1 million+ active installs. largely because it was pushed automatically through siteground-managed WordPress installations.

the WordPress.org review page currently shows an average rating of 1.1/5, with 47 one-star reviews out of 48 total reviews.

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sg-ai-studio/reviews/