Broadband Tech > Security > Security > Avira Partners with Scareware and Sleazeware Vendors

Avira Partners with Scareware and Sleazeware Vendors

Thanks for the information Mele20 , it looks like Avira is a product bearing close watch for now.

reply to Mele20
Would this include Uniblue's ProcessQuickLink2 that I have used for a long time and is never picked up as malware by MalwareBytes?

reply to Mele20
This is the same reason why I stop using Lavasoft Ad-Aware years ago.

They started excluding known malware in their scans.
--
everyone is born ignorant. some are born stupid, others achieve stupidity and the rest have stupidity thrust upon them.

reply to deke40
Uniblue's products aren't malware at all. It's their sales tactics that are debatable, and some of their products might be crap (don't know, haven't used them), but they are not malware.

reply to Mele20

said by Mele20:

---

some security related forums are already advising their members to ditch Avira

---

reply to Mele20
Thanks for head-up. I use the free version of Avast in a couple of my PC's but has been eagerly awaiting the next version of Avira to try again. I guess not. I will now wait and see how how thing proceed.
--
A bad picture is better than no picture at all.
»www.flickr.com/photos/26596858@N08/

reply to Mele20
Mele, thanks and glad you got to
post this AGAIN!!

reply to heels_fan

reply to Mele20
Wow......the sky is falling,the sky is falling.

1st of all I haven't seen any ads from Avira in years,because you can block that process easiiy from your firewall~

And who cares what sponsors they get ,it's going to be a optional out anyway..........tons of free software apps are doing it.

Wake up and smell the roses,they're offering their program for free.........they're allowed to do anything they please.

Just cause users are too bloody stupid to not read what they install ............give me a break~
--
~~Get our troops home...now!!~~

reply to Mele20
I am an administrator at a computer help forum and while we have not advised our users to ditch Avira nor rescinded our recommendation of their products, we have posted a warning about their partnership with Uniblue and the association with Ask.com. While Uniblue's registry "optimizer" may not be malware, it is scareware and unless the end user knows enough about the registry to ascertain whether a key is unneeded or important, we also advise to avoid registry cleaners for carte blanche cleaning. We have witnessed too many instances of those who have completely hosed their computers, or crippled needed programs/decreased system performance and stability to do otherwise.

Btw, those letters encouraging people to download Uniblue's registry booster are going out to freeware users as well. This means there is an even larger potential pool of users who may find themselves in trouble if they follow Avira's recommendations.

Edited to reply to the poster above: People trust their security software companies. When they find that trust has been misplaced, winning it back may be impossible. For a company such as Avira, that has worked hard for and earned a stellar reputation in the security community, an ill-advised business decision can be a financial disaster.

reply to Mele20
Uniblue & "advertising" (in general) has come up from time to time in the NoScript forums.

There was a time when NoScript used Uniblue as a potential revenue source. They do not now. Don't know the reasons? At the time, NoScript did not take issue with Uniblue being included as an advertiser.

Discussion: Are Giorgio's ads seen as endorsements?
»forums.informaction.com/viewtopi···2&t=3472

---

I have not seen how advertising (Uniblue) interacts with Avira, but these days, I look at it like advertising is part & parcel of most all Internet activity. It is pervasive.

Otherwise "free" products, contain toolbars or whatnot that need to be deselected on install. Download sites regularly have (purposely?) confusing links to ad products.

You need to be aware. The unwary are often "taken".

That said, if one is unhappy because of such ads, the answer is simply, don't use the product (or visit the web site, whatever the case may be).

reply to Mele20
Thanks Mele20 for the info provided! And we at the Calendar of Updates will not be posting updates no longer for Avira until they get rid of the ASK Toolbar in their free version! »www.calendarofupdates.com/update···253&st=0 and Announcement! »www.calendarofupdates.com/update···id=95954

TH
--
Triple Helix - VIP Member Of ASAP - (Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals™) - Official Prevx Support Forum Helper!

reply to Mele20

In our forum, we have more than a fair share of new users or those who may not be the most computer savvy. When ads like this appear or the emails arrive, you would be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) at the people who actually pay attention and think that since a new product is recommended by their security software companies and offers something free that may help their computers, they will download that product without a second thought. There are a few who may actually post and ask first, but the majority come to us after the fact, when problems occur as a result. We tend to forget that there are neophytes coming to the world of home computing every day, or those who have never bothered or had need to educate themselves about things we take for granted.

quote:

---

When ads like this appear or the emails arrive, you would be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) at the people who actually pay attention and think that since a new product is recommended by their security software companies and offers something free that may help their computers, they will download that product without a second thought.

---

reply to ZZZZZZZ

reply to Mele20
Thanks for the info Mele20.

reply to Mele20
Thx very much for the heads up, Mele20!