I am a Creative Cloud All Apps annual plan subscriber since 2 years ago, here by writing to file my formal complaint regarding to Acrobat Reader DC installer (downloaded from here in the first result from Google: https://get.adobe.com/tw/reader/) forcefully installing McAfee to my machine with NO EXPLICIT TERMS TO NOTIFY USER before installation NOR ANY CLEAR OPTIONS TO LET USER UNCHECK MCAFEE installation, my installation of the Acrobat Reader was being abandoned due to having Acrobat Pro DC being installed whereas the INSTALLER STILL PROCEEDS TO INSTALL MCAFEE.
Several attempts has been made to terminate the installation, however, every time after CLICKING YES IN CONFIRMATION SCREEN DOES NOT STOP INSTALLATION.

After installation, McAfee PERFORMS AUTO SCAN AFTER INSTELLATION and crashed my machine as my machine has CPU VM mode turned on in BIOS setting, what’s more, THE INSTALLER WILL REGISTER MCAFEE IN MSCONFIG.EXE TO AUTORUN DURING STARTUP WITHOUT USER PERMISSION.

The installation of McAfee is unauthorized, forceful without user consent, deceptive as there is no indication prior to installation as captured in image 1, 2 and 3. In summary, (1). Adobe’s website provides transportation to deceive user that the installer only provides the installation of Adobe Reader, whereas (2). Adobe’s installer provides method to allow installation of McAfee and allow (3). McAfee’s unauthorized access to ALL user’s machine files and (4). change operation system settings without ANY user permission (5). RIDING ON THE ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS requested upon installer startup, given by the deceived, naïve user like me, in this case McAfee is considered as malware in this regard, no matter how effective it is to clear other malwares.

This is a clear breach of trust, as a loyal customer of using your software for more than 10 years, this is very disappointing and discouraging to think after paying a fortune what user will gets is being infiltrated by trusting a loved brand and being a supporter for so long. It is found difficult to NOT feeling concern on Adobe’s integrity issue from now onwards when installing software updates or reinstallation on all my purchased products. This incident is making the public to concern your firm has very limited or no internal regulation to handle what to include in software installation packages, without proper explanation and promises to the public, users are at risk no matter they are paid customers or not.

If customers’ honest feedback is not a concern as 4 feedbacks regarding to similar topic has been submitted since March 2021 with NO action from Adobe, this item clearly being tagged as low priority by the product team. To help with the justification for prioritizing this item as high risk, perhaps the compliance team may also be interested in looking at federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”), 18 U.S.C. § 1029 and 1030, which states (a). unauthorized access (or exceeding authorized access) to a computer that is used in interstate or foreign commerce and obtaining information, (b). infection (suitable to include unauthorized installation) of IT systems with malware and (c). any other activity that adversely affects or threatens the security, confidentiality, integrity or availability of any IT system, infrastructure, communications network, device or data, can be included in the criteria to law breach. For foreign users, the USA PATRIOT Act amended the CFAA and Access Device Fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1029, to expressly apply them extraterritorially.

I have reported this issue once in virtual chat service and explicitly stated to file this as a formal complaint. As instructed by the customer service representative, this is the only effective channel to file my formal complaint, this is the case reference number ADB-25351998-L4J4, my call handler promised his / her assistance to track the progress of this complaint closely.

Active follow up in timely manner is kindly demanded and please provide further updates with solid action plans by 1st August 2022, otherwise further action will be taken to raise the concern and attention further for Adobe’s prioritization. For your kind note, I and my friends are considering unsubscribing with deep disappointment.

For any further materials required please let me know, will be more than happy to provide, thank you very much for your attention.