Really bogus Flash upgrade didn't ask re McAfee

[Guest]

Failing to ask my permission to install McAfee is highly unethical and may be illegal. How is your behavior any different than that of a hacker installing a Trojan horse program?

I already don't think too highly of Adobe's competence, given the high incidence of security bugs in Flash Player. And I evicted McAfee from my computer a long time ago (slow, more of a problem than a solution) a long time ago. I want no part of McAfee in the future.

I am trying to take the high road here and inform Adobe that this is unacceptable, despite the fact you should already know it. Yes it is easy to uninstall McAfee. ***I shouldn't have to!***

Henceforth I will go out of my way to advise others to not to business with either company.

[C_F_McBlob]

There are links to FULL installers, which have no bundled software:

Flash Player for ActiveX (Internet Explorer)

Flash Player Plug-in (All other browsers)

They're posted in these forums dozens of time daily.

[Guest]

Same thing. I shouldn't have to know about or hunt for them. Your company apparently just doesn't get ethics. There should be a conspicuous opt out checkbox.

Sent from my iPhone

[C_F_McBlob]

Sorry, it's NOT my company (I work for myself - I only help here). MY company does get ethics - more so than the three nonpaying customers I've had this last year.
I agree that there should be an opt out in the updater, like there is with the initial download. There are three points I'd like to make:
1. Adobe offests MILLIONS in development and maintenance costs annually with this oracrtice so it ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE ANYTIME SOON.
2. Adobe ISN'T the only company that does this. Oracle, VLC, Corel, Roxio and even Microsoft "bundle" third party apps.

3. This ISN'T something that just started last week (in spite of when you first saw it). It's been going on, to my knowledge, since at least 2003.

Lastly, Reader, AIR, Shockwave and Flash Player are FREE to download, They AREN'T free to develop, update and distribute. Whether you see that as justification or not for "bundling", Adobe does and neither you nor I run Adobe so we aren't going to change it, and unless the entire computing world agrees to pay for the products and updates, Adobe isn't going to change it either. That's not an attempt to justify it, but an explanation of the reality of the situation.

[Guest]

Ok, I was thinking from the email address it was an official Adobe

reply. Nothing personal.

I get recouping costs by ad and do not have a problem with that. Most

other companies provide reasonably conspicuous opt out. That works for me.

Oracle w/ Java has been sliding down the sleazy scale on that,

particularly since Ask.Com is something I consider of very dubious value

(makes money for them, doesn't do much for me). Oracle is also

destroying their reputation with some pretty poor coding and security

issues on the updates since they bought Sun. I don't do VLC, Corel,

Roxio. And I'll even grant as an iPhone user I find some of Apple's

business practices (the ITunes/Store lock-in) pretty questionable.

[pwillener]

pw7788 wrote:

I am trying to take the high road here and inform Adobe that this is unacceptable, despite the fact you should already know it.

This is a user forum; you are not addressing Adobe here.