Touch my search provider again! -- A failure of McAfee's Engineers

[AlkalineCandy]

So there I was minding my own business yesterday when my Total Protection software updated.  Now, for almost a year now I have been tolerant of random pop up messages that apparently have no apparent settings that you can shut down.  Take a HINT!  I am not going to install McAfee products on my cell phone.  However, I am straying from my original topic.  Yesterday, was a different matter all together.

During the last update McAfee engineers added a small tweak to their software.  They overwrote the default search engine on your default browser.  Now, me being fairly quick to spot things like this it took me all of 15 minutes to see what happened and to block it from happening again, but the fact that they would make this change...taking users from their secure search providers (Google in my case) and shifting me to Yahoo without any emails, notification, etc....that is plain wrong.  When I installed this software many years ago and its subsequent upgrades over time, at no point did I authorized it to mess with my browser settings.  I didn't install the McAfee browser tools at all.  I don't like them.  I don't need them.  Etc...etc.  If I thought McAfee did a great job with browser protection, or if they were even needed (they are not), I wouldn't have purchased hardware that specifically protects my ENTIRE home network both from a firewall perspective and from inbound malicious code.  Now that you have messed with my choice of search provider, you have me wondering if that was a profit motivated thought or was it engineering based.  I suspect...it was profit driven because almost everyone who matters in the Cyber Security world DOES NOT USE YAHOO unless it is for a research project only.

So....how about this compromise:

You stop trying to do my thinking for me and I continue to buy your software....without all the fancy popups ads prompting me to install this or that elsewhere, etc....and without you trying to adjust settings on my system that have ZERO to do with FIREWALL and ANTIVIRUS settings...the only 2 things I installed you to do.  In other words....keep your fingers out of the pies I did not authorize you to touch when I installed you.  If you can't, I am going to replace you with something that will be more cognizant of boundaries and I won't but buying it from your Enterprise department.  Been there, done that.  Not again thank you.

[karthikeyan_J]

Hi @AlkalineCandy 

We are truly sorry for the inconvenience.

We request you to follow the below article to find out the reasons why your default search engine might have changed, and information about how to revert to your preferred search engine 

McAfee WebAdvisor changed my search engine

If you do not require a browser protection, please remove McAfee Web Advisor using the below article

How to disable or uninstall McAfee WebAdvisor

Thanks,
Karthikeyan J

[AlkalineCandy]

Hi @karthikeyan_J 

Appreciate the insight, but let me give you some more data.

1. I don't have Web or Site-Advisor or any component of it installed in Chrome.  Never have, nor will I ever.
2. I don't have it installed on my system.

[karthikeyan_J]

Hi @AlkalineCandy 

Thanks for your response.

As there are no McAfee extensions installed, the search engine will not be changed by McAfee. Please uncheck the box, if McAfee notifies you for the change and click on done.

If you still continue to face this issue please contact our Technical Support for more assistance.

Thanks,
Karthikeyan J

[AlkalineCandy]

@karthikeyan_J , that is not accurate at all.  I traced the changes to McAfee updates directly and even without the toolbar installed, web configured, etc...McAfee has been pushing yahoo.com into Chrome as the search provider.  I have verified this with multiple systems to include a clean system that only has McAfee and Chrome installed.  

Also, it would be really nice that when I say I don't want pop up notifications from McAfee....that I don't get a McAfee advertisement to put it on more devices.  I already configured what I want to see messages about and I don't want to see advertisements to use other services.

[karthikeyan_J]

Hi @AlkalineCandy 

Thanks for your response again.

If the McAfee is still changing the default search engine even after removing Web Advisor & unchecking the box. Please contact our Technical Support so that we could collect more information and investigate this further.

Thanks,
Karthikeyan J