This is malware behaviour and I don't think calling it that is an exaggeration.
I don't use any Adobe applications myself but somebody else on my home network does and I can tell you, Adobe app telemetry is very noisy.
Adobe telemetry domains like the following are amongst the top blocked by my local pi-hole installation which is using the OISD big list:
adobecorp.data.adobedc.net
aepxlg.adobe.com
hbrt.adobe.com
So this kind of behaviour is to be expected from Adobe but modifying the local hosts file is a new low, even for them.
my thoughts on software telemetry have remained unchanged since 2023 since I wrote this:
https://nullrouted.space/2023/02/16/on-telemetry-in-software/
As far as I know the only major software developer that does software telemetry consent right is Mozilla and the way they do telemetry in Firefox.
@packetcat Wait, so there is a team within Mozilla that understands consent? Maybe they can go thump... err I mean impart that wisdom on the AI features group.
@nivex I think somebody had that Talk and some of it is in latest Firefox stable
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-ai-controls
but IIRC, these "AI" features are opt-out by default so its not perfect