Avast Free Antivirus joins fray against Trump... Just Wow!

[Sighlass]

Let me start off saying I am not one for writing, my wife is far more competent in such matters, but I wanted to convoy what happened to me today that surprised me.

I use a free antivirus program called "Avast", it is one of the bigger programs for protecting your computer used on the internet, and in my opinion it does a fine job. But being free you get "pop-ups" on occasion that remind you that their paid version is so much better and to consider renting a year's expanded coverage. That is fine, it is capitalism.

But today I got a surprise, my "pop-up" was a link to an anti-Trump news article. I was quite surprised to see Avast blatantly stick it's finger in politics for progressives. 

Here is the link the "pop-up" linked to. It does not contain any virus (clean link) but you can read for yourself just how one sided this article was. You have to remember I am not a Trumpbot, never even came close, but I surely didn't expect an antivirus company to start pushing this liberal crap on me. I may not of voted for him, but that does not mean I can't see when he is being trashed beyond what is normal.

https://www.the-parallax.com/2017/01/16/kasparov-trump-putin-fake-news/?utm_source=parallax&utm_campaign=q1parallax17&utm_medium=toaster-infoad&utm_content=Article-1-Trump

Now this article is a "fake news" article about "fake news". OTWs republicans read fake news and we need you to only read our news and call their news fake. It is basically BS. But one has to remember, Avast (since it bought AVG) has over 400 million people it just spammed. News organizations drool over that amount of power. It certainly is not to be taken lightly.

Anyhoo, once again I am not a writer, but this ticked me off. Screw you Avast, take your politics out of antivirus programs. It does not behoove you.

[Wingnut]

I use the "Free" Avast.  Had three Pop-ups today.  None like that.  Just the usual.
 We blocked x number of virus world wide today...
 You puter needs a clean up. 
and one malware warning and block from an image linked to a porn site on a google search.

[Oceander]

If I see something like that I'll certainly reconsider using it. 

[endicom]

Let me start off saying I am not one for writing, my wife is far more competent in such matters, but I wanted to convoy what happened to me today that surprised me.

I use a free antivirus program called "Avast", it is one of the bigger programs for protecting your computer used on the internet, and in my opinion it does a fine job. But being free you get "pop-ups" on occasion that remind you that their paid version is so much better and to consider renting a year's expanded coverage. That is fine, it is capitalism.

But today I got a surprise, my "pop-up" was a link to an anti-Trump news article. I was quite surprised to see Avast blatantly stick it's finger in politics for progressives. 

Here is the link the "pop-up" linked to. It does not contain any virus (clean link) but you can read for yourself just how one sided this article was. You have to remember I am not a Trumpbot, never even came close, but I surely didn't expect an antivirus company to start pushing this liberal crap on me. I may not of voted for him, but that does not mean I can't see when he is being trashed beyond what is normal.

https://www.the-parallax.com/2017/01/16/kasparov-trump-putin-fake-news/?utm_source=parallax&utm_campaign=q1parallax17&utm_medium=toaster-infoad&utm_content=Article-1-Trump

Now this article is a "fake news" article about "fake news". OTWs republicans read fake news and we need you to only read our news and call their news fake. It is basically BS. But one has to remember, Avast (since it bought AVG) has over 400 million people it just spammed. News organizations drool over that amount of power. It certainly is not to be taken lightly.

Anyhoo, once again I am not a writer, but this ticked me off. Screw you Avast, take your politics out of antivirus programs. It does not behoove you.

That's probably not Avast's doing. Avast takes money from a third party that hosts ads from who pays them. Probably.

[Cripplecreek]

Guess I just don't get what the issue is.

What I'm seeing isn't news at all but Gary Kasparov's opinion which he's entitled to, however nearly all media both for and against Trump is pure opinion now anyway so its all "fake news". In this case I happen to agree with Kasparov about the dangers of misinformation used to discredit real info. Its nothing new. Cass Sunstein wrote a paper at Columbia university about the value of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

After all, I see the Trumpers passing around a story from Alex Jones claiming that Roger Stone was poisoned with Polonium despite the obvious problems with such a claim.

[Idiot]

Let me start off saying I am not one for writing, my wife is far more competent in such matters, but I wanted to convoy what happened to me today that surprised me.

I use a free antivirus program called "Avast", it is one of the bigger programs for protecting your computer used on the internet, and in my opinion it does a fine job. But being free you get "pop-ups" on occasion that remind you that their paid version is so much better and to consider renting a year's expanded coverage. That is fine, it is capitalism.

But today I got a surprise, my "pop-up" was a link to an anti-Trump news article. I was quite surprised to see Avast blatantly stick it's finger in politics for progressives. 

Here is the link the "pop-up" linked to. It does not contain any virus (clean link) but you can read for yourself just how one sided this article was. You have to remember I am not a Trumpbot, never even came close, but I surely didn't expect an antivirus company to start pushing this liberal crap on me. I may not of voted for him, but that does not mean I can't see when he is being trashed beyond what is normal.

https://www.the-parallax.com/2017/01/16/kasparov-trump-putin-fake-news/?utm_source=parallax&utm_campaign=q1parallax17&utm_medium=toaster-infoad&utm_content=Article-1-Trump

Now this article is a "fake news" article about "fake news". OTWs republicans read fake news and we need you to only read our news and call their news fake. It is basically BS. But one has to remember, Avast (since it bought AVG) has over 400 million people it just spammed. News organizations drool over that amount of power. It certainly is not to be taken lightly.

Anyhoo, once again I am not a writer, but this ticked me off. Screw you Avast, take your politics out of antivirus programs. It does not behoove you.

I use Avast as well and haven't had any of the popups that you've mentioned.

[Sighlass]

I use Avast as well and haven't had any of the popups that you've mentioned.

That's probably not Avast's doing. Avast takes money from a third party that hosts ads from who pays them. Probably.

I use the "Free" Avast.  Had three Pop-ups today.  None like that.  Just the usual.
 We blocked x number of virus world wide today...

@Wingnut @endicom @mrpotatohead

Yes it was Avast's pop-up (I didn't think to take a screenshot but I did take great notice). I did a little research and this website is propped up somewhat by Avast. I will quote the bio of the author (Garry Kasporov) who works for Avast.

 QUOTE "As a security ambassador for Avast Software, sponsor of The Parallax, ...." END QUOTE

https://www.the-parallax.com/author/garry-kasparov/

So yes I a fully confident it was Avast that did this. It was not a paid advertisement either (I have never seen a 3rd party ad from them even once), it was their pop-up notification.... I get one about every 2 or 3rd days so they are not frequent.  Glad others have not reported this happening to them, but it did happen to me. Also notice that Avast has ads all over the website they linked to. It is basically owned and operated by Avast. You can bet on it.


Notice the link I gave had stuff in it that read that it was linked. The regular URL is below...

https://www.the-parallax.com/2017/01/16/kasparov-trump-putin-fake-news/

This is URL I linked that was linked from Avast (link below).

https://www.the-parallax.com/2017/01/16/kasparov-trump-putin-fake-news/?utm_source=parallax&utm_campaign=q1parallax17&utm_medium=toaster-infoad&utm_content=Article-1-Trump

Both go to same article, but one has header information telling them just how much traffic was sent from Avast's pop-up ad.

______________________________________

Guess I just don't get what the issue is.

What I'm seeing isn't news at all but Gary Kasparov's opinion which he's entitled to, however nearly all media both for and against Trump is pure opinion now anyway so its all "fake news". In this case I happen to agree with Kasparov about the dangers of misinformation used to discredit real info. Its nothing new. Cass Sunstein wrote a paper at Columbia university about the value of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

After all, I see the Trumpers passing around a story from Alex Jones claiming that Roger Stone was poisoned with Polonium despite the obvious problems with such a claim.

@Cripplecreek

The first two paragraphs set the tone, but yes later in his article he calmed down and started talking sense eventually. Personally we know him to be a Hillary supporter because he said he was. But to discard the first couple of paragraphs which he links in his defense to TIMES and BBC and NYTIMES for reference. He also references NBC and WashingtonPost in the next paragraphs. Just because they are usually liberal (in my opinion) does not in itself make one article bad, but in political matters they are rarely on target.

That said, I agree, I hate fake news. I have a buddy (good ole boy) that reposts every dang thing he sees on FB as fact. Drives me crazy. Even though he is conservative, he posts some of the most retarded outright lies as truth. I fact check him all the time and try to correct him, but he never seems to see that he is making conservatives look bad when he posts things that are not true. Most of it just requires a little common sense to see it is fake.

Link to where he said he was voting for Hillary Clinton below.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/garry-kasparov-chess-hillary-clinton-vote/2016/09/09/id/747568/

[EC]

Guess I just don't get what the issue is.

May I summarize?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What they are not entitled to is my attention.

Avast has been granted some of my attention to their pop-ups, as it provides a service in return - protecting my computer. The pop-ups are fairly benign or nondescript - reminder that they'll go away if I pay, tooting the company horn, stuff like that. Fine - part of the deal. The deal was never that their pop-ups would be used as an opinion feed that I have to pay to actively avoid.

[JustPassinThru]

To the Left...everything is politics.  What products we use; what neighborhood we live in...WHAT OUR SKIN HUE IS...is all political or must be made political.

The data-processing and digital communications fields present SUCH an opportunity to inject THEIR intolerant, drumbeat politics into it...they can't help themselves.

I don't need Avast.  I don't need it because I use Linux.  Yes, it's less stable than better installations of Windows; but it's also virtually-immune to hacking and viruses.  I have the major browsers written for it...Chromium and Firefox.  Popups I have; and occasional crashes; but I don't need to worry if my good, free antivirus becomes a political plaything tomorrow.

[Sighlass]

May I summarize?
The deal was never that their pop-ups would be used as an opinion feed that I have to pay to actively avoid.

Thanks @EC

[geronl]

That sounds like a paid ad

[Sighlass]

That sounds like a paid ad

@geronl

Well if it was a paid ad, it was the first one I have seen in 4 years of using them. It used the exact same method of delivery as their usual ads and the exact same place as all their other ads that only advertised upgrading to their paid version. It was funny that the author of the opinion piece was a person who was employed by Avast and the web site it was posted on seemed to be chiefly paid for by Avast with advertisements of only Avast and no other companies.

[EC]

Thanks @EC

 

My pleasure.

[geronl]

@geronl

Okay, that is strange

[ABX]

@geronl

Well if it was a paid ad, it was the first one I have seen in 4 years of using them. It used the exact same method of delivery as their usual ads and the exact same place as all their other ads that only advertised upgrading to their paid version. It was funny that the author of the opinion piece was a person who was employed by Avast and the web site it was posted on seemed to be chiefly paid for by Avast with advertisements of only Avast and no other companies.

Avast free uses pop up ads, that's why the service is free. I'm surprised it is the first you've seen because it is a common complaint and gripe about Avast for years. It is one of the ways they get you to bump up to their paid services.
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-disable-avasts-annoying-sounds-and-popups-1530732542

I stopped using them a long time ago because they were annoying. A deep dive into how it works, it is similar to Google's ad sense. Advertisers simply buy blocks of impressions. The type of ads that Avast shows to you is tailored to your search history based on the advertiser's preferences, not Avast.

No anti-Trump conspiracy, just web ads working like web ads.

[Sighlass]

Avast free uses pop up ads, that's why the service is free. I'm surprised it is the first you've seen because it is a common complaint and gripe about Avast for years. It is one of the ways they get you to bump up to their paid services.
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-disable-avasts-annoying-sounds-and-popups-1530732542

I stopped using them a long time ago because they were annoying. A deep dive into how it works, it is similar to Google's ad sense. Advertisers simply buy blocks of impressions. The type of ads that Avast shows to you is tailored to your search history based on the advertiser's preferences, not Avast.

No anti-Trump conspiracy, just web ads working like web ads.

@AbaraXas

Like I said, I have used Avast for a long time. I know the difference between an paid 3rd party ad and the company just advertising it's upgrade. Your own link shows the usual types of pop-up ads that they display. Yes I get/got those. They are related to upgrading to the paid version of Avast, not some political redirect. See for yourself (your link picture below)



I have seen that a million times. There was settings on previous versions that either stopped them or slowed the frequency (and length of time they displayed). At first you could stop them years ago, then later versions of Avast you could not stop them, but you could shorten the time they displayed to one second (basically making them unnoticeable).

You say "The type of ads that Avast shows to you is tailored to your search history based on the advertiser's preferences, not Avast. "

That is a first to me, I do not believe it is proven that Avast monitors your search history like Google does if you disable their privacy tab of share data. Located in Tools - General - Privacy

Like I said, I don't care they tried to get you to upgrade to their paid version, it just surprised me that they suddenly switched gears and went political. They have never once before pushed something that was not their product upgrade before. Not once in 4 years (and several years before that because I use to use them years ago before trying AVG for a year or so). They purchased AVG from what I have seen not too long ago.

[LateForLunch]

Avast and other free spyware companies will likely be going out of business soon. Windows 10 has built-in anti-virus/spyware that makes Norton, Avast etc. not only obsolete but they commonly have a very negative (or even catastrophic) effect on one's software. No doubt other major OS's  (Linux, Firefox, Apple) will follow suit if they haven't already. That is not my opinion, that was what I heard on a recent edition of The Tech Guy syndicated radio program. He is a fairly good source of objective information, as far as I can tell. He flat out called Norton spyware "garbage" and stated that the nature of the structure of freeware anti-virus programs often makes them more of a facilitator for malware intrusions than a protection against them.

[truth_seeker]

Avast and other free spyware companies will likely be going out of business soon. Windows 10 has built-in anti-virus/spyware that makes Norton, Avast etc. not only obsolete but they commonly have a very negative (or even catastrophic) effect on one's software. No doubt other major OS's  (Linux, Firefox, Apple) will follow suit if they haven't already. That is not my opinion, that was what I heard on a recent edition of The Tech Guy syndicated radio program. He is a fairly good source of objective information, as far as I can tell. He flat out called Norton spyware "garbage" and stated that the nature of the structure of freeware anti-virus programs often makes them more of a facilitator for malware intrusions than a protection against them.

I have two Win10 laptops, and have not used an Antivirus system on either one since new.  And I don't plan to.

In fact since I got a Win7 machine, and used only Microsoft's Defender, Security Essentials I have not had Virus problems.

When the dude from India calls to explain he is from "Microsoft" or from "Windows," I don't give them business or money, either.

That Tech Guy on the radio is tops, in my view. Leo Laporte. When I talk technology with my wife (neither one of us are anything more than beginner/intermediate) she says "that is not what that tech guy said."

[ABX]

Avast and other free spyware companies will likely be going out of business soon. Windows 10 has built-in anti-virus/spyware that makes Norton, Avast etc. not only obsolete but they commonly have a very negative (or even catastrophic) effect on one's software. No doubt other major OS's  (Linux, Firefox, Apple) will follow suit if they haven't already. That is not my opinion, that was what I heard on a recent edition of The Tech Guy syndicated radio program. He is a fairly good source of objective information, as far as I can tell. He flat out called Norton spyware "garbage" and stated that the nature of the structure of freeware anti-virus programs often makes them more of a facilitator for malware intrusions than a protection against them.

Just a note of advice, the free (included) Windows anti-virus/anti-malware software is all but useless. It only protects against some basic, known viruses and malware and does not keep up with the latest ones. I am constantly receiving tech bulletins from work notifying us about the latest threats and to make sure our anti-virus is up to date, not to trust what is included with Windows as the threats are usually discovered because they got past what Windows offers.   Even some of the free softare is having trouble keeping up. I usually suggest a multiple layered defense with a quality anti-virus, anti-malware, drive guard, and dedicated firewall. Especially if you have anything financially or business tied to your computer.

[roamer_1]

Just a note of advice, the free (included) Windows anti-virus/anti-malware software is all but useless.

@AbaraXas

As a service tech = MEGADITTOS
I will back your entire statement.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I primarily use Windows for everyday web stuff and cannot remember the last malware we had. We use EsetNod 32 here, it's fairly good, and doesn't seem to slow down your system as well as other AV solution. I also am religious about applying updates, and never surf with IE.

[LateForLunch]

I primarily use Windows for everyday web stuff and cannot remember the last malware we had. We use EsetNod 32 here, it's fairly good, and doesn't seem to slow down your system as well as other AV solution. I also am religious about applying updates, and never surf with IE.

What version of Windows anti=-virus are useless? Leo Laporte ( The Tech Guy) says that he believes the Windows 10 antivirus is fine.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

What version of Windows anti=-virus are useless? Leo Laporte ( The Tech Guy) says that he believes the Windows 10 antivirus is fine.

I agree with Leo Laparte... if you stay on top of updates and use Google Chrome or firefox. Most users won't do either.

I watch Leo too, I like his show on Youtube. His opinions are reasoned and well thought out, unlike the hysteria that dominates tech news of late.

[LateForLunch]

I agree with Leo Laparte... if you stay on top of updates and use Google Chrome or firefox. Most users won't do either.

I watch Leo too, I like his show on Youtube. His opinions are reasoned and well thought out, unlike the hysteria that dominates tech news of late.

Yeah, he's got an interesting show and is always very patient and helpful (never snarky or derisive). I guess that's one of the reasons he makes the big bucks.

He mentioned that many of the older AV programs are written so that they access deep levels of the OS (right down to the kernel) which makes them usable as mechanisms to infect as well as protect. He also said that programs like Norton have a history of slowing down OS's because their software gets into registry conflicts with other programs for control of the system security protocols and peripheral operations. He said to run, don't walk to someone who will help remove Norton AV software from any computer afflicted with it.