US sues Adobe for “deceiving” subscriptions that are too hard to cancel
www.theverge.com
The DOJ accuses Adobe of trapping users in subscriptions.
  • datavoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
    78·
    3 months ago

    Somewhere on my PC I have a several page long rant about how many government websites in Canada require you to pay for an Adobe subscription in order to sign an “official” PDF.

    Why the hell isn’t there a better option for filling out legally required, government mandated forms than giving a private corporation money? This bothers me so fucking much.

    • GreatAlbatross@feddit.ukEnglish
      6·
      3 months ago

      What’s even more crazy, is Adobe has a system called something like “docusign”, where you can just fill the document in in-browser.

      I’m fortunate that I haven’t yet hit a form I couldn’t just edit in GIMP!

    • Septimaeus@infosec.pubEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      I’m curious about this. If demonstrable, it seems many Canadians could sue.

      What is the typical user workflow? For example:

      1. An embedded Adobe applet (e.g. fill, sign, and submit on the government website)
      2. Token-based API (e.g. redirect or spawn child window/tab, user fills and signs on adobe site, user returned to government site)
      3. Something else (e.g. upload button with server-side validation for digital signing)

      Edit: looked into this a bit. Did you receive an error message like the following?

      This document does not allow you to save any changes you have made to it unless you are using Adobe Acrobat Standard DC or Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

      (Regardless it’s totally shitty that government websites recommend a specific company’s software, especially Adobe. I’m just trying to figure out if they actually force citizens to pay a private company.)