Why did Flash Player install McAfee on my computer without my permission?

Yeah, I joined specifically to come in here and say I tried downloading Adobe today and it instantaneously started downloading McAfee WITHOUT MY PERMISSION or any notice that it would be doing so. I halted both downloads immediately. But this is B.S.

There's a very long post with lots of anguished customers complaining about this issue and essentially being ignored by Adobe. That thread http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1056732?start=80&tstart=0 is now locked. The short answer is that cursory research shows that use of Flash is in decline. Bundling crapware is a standard way of milking the last years of a product in decline. MacAffee meanwhile have been bought by Intel who presumably want to get their money back, whilst the founder of MacAffee is wanted by police for questioning in relation to the death of his neighbour which is having an effect on public perceptions of the ethics of the company.

In other words standard corporate shenanigans behind the scenes have led to this bundling.

There's ONE updater that would do that. They were supposed to remove it, but apparently they haven't.

If this was a fresh download, the option to NOT download and install was on the page with the download.

Download the Adobe Flash Player installer directly by clicking one of the following links.

Flash Player for ActiveX (Internet Explorer)

Flash Player Plug-in (All other browsers)

Bookmark those links, because when the version changes, they update, so you'll be able to get the latest WITHOUT anything bundled.