I’ve been using avast for a while now and its been pretty good but I heard quite a bit of bad things about them like them sharing data to 3rd parties, are those claims true? If it’s a bad antivirus do you have any other free antivirus recommendations?
Go with something else! Avast used to be a great service until they added their own Trojan, I mean web browser. The thing auto installs WITHOUT asking permissions, slows down EVERYTHING, and takes OVER an HOUR to uninstall. As if that weren’t bad enough if you leave the Avast antivirus on your machine it will just reinstall the browser, still without asking permission, the very next time it updates. After years of loyal Avast use I am yanking it from all my machines. Way to completely mess up a great thing!
I used it for a while now and I’ll stop at the end of my yearly subscription. Got ads everyday, it always gives you messages like “you have XXX problems, resolve it now !” and when you click you are just invited to buy another extension of their program.
I hate ads. I don’t pay a subscription to have more of them.
Avast was last year caught and fined for selling its users’ browsing history to advertisers. They accepted the evidence as being true.
Avast’s malware protection is very good, but its issues are one of privacy and trust. They wanted to make money off their free users by selling their internet usage so they could be specifically targeted by advertisers.
In addition, their products, especially the free version, are notorious for displaying endless often misleading ‘warnings’ that are little more than scare tactics to push people to upgrade.
All antivirus companies collect users’ data, every single one, but they do so for their own records and product development. Avast chose profit over the privacy and safety of its own users and for that, I’d never use them (free or premium).
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free offers an even higher level of protection than Avast and doesn’t sell your data. You also have the option of opting out of some of the data collection. The free version does show the odd popup but nothing like the quantity of Avast.
If you want a totally silent (apart from malware warnings) free AV, consider Bitdefender Antivirus Free. It’s a set and forget AV no popups, no settings just very effective malware and browsing protection. I’ve used both Kaspersky and Bitdefender over the years.
Others I’ve tried and found wanting. Avira Free, decent protection, but too many key malware protection layers left out plus endless, often misleading popup adverts. Sophos Home Free, excellent malware protection with only the occasional popup adverts, but very high memory and CPU usage. If you’re careful where you browse and only use Edge, Windows Defender is ok, but it’s weaker against ransomware and very new malware (zero-day).
The most important rule of the Internet is there is nothing for free, everybody’s got to make a living. Of course they share your data, it keeps Avast’s light on.
Avast robbed me for my $$ go with #kaspersky
Avast is a scammer. They billed me $107 for something I never ordered, never wanted and never used. They have refused to give me a refund.
If you know where are you clicking during internet browsing, default antivirus in Win is OK for you, no need anything else.
If you are paranoid AF, surely go ONLY for Crowdstrike, as it can recognize 0 day threat, but it is surely pricey, 300$ per year for 5 devices and you must have some sort of bussiness.
They also offer lot of services like active scanning of your enviroment by real people, that can help you improve overall security of your enviroment etc.
Windows Defender if you don’t mind it being a bit sluggish when it comes to speed. Kaspersky Cloud Free is good and so is avast! Free. People write all sorts of dumb shit about both and I’ve defended them both. Whole privacy thing about avast! was totally overblown and filled with so much bullshit it’s hard to know where to even begin. It’s good and very capable antivirus. I still recommend unchecking all the options under its Privacy settings except the first option which is for cloud protection and is recommended to be on. All other analytics and stuff can easily be disabled.
I mean, we don’t really know what happened with Jumpshot and the data as the bigger picture.
Avast’s EULA | Avast’s Privacy Policy
If you wish to not share anonymous data with Avast and/or its third-parties, just uncheck the last three(3) tickboxes under Privacy Policy in Avast’s Settings.
Avast is still a damn fine antivirus program.
Avast was amazing back in 2015-ish. Now it’s full of bloatware and additional tools that nobody wants and it constantly spams you with notifications and advertisements despite turning them off in the settings. I hate the brand now and switched to an alternative.
Avast was screwing up my connection to my Plex server. Just stick with free Kaspersky or use AdBlock, Windows Defender and a little common sense.
I have been using avast for 2 years with no problems only issues are the popups but i disabled those and it saved me many times.
It makes your computer go back 10 years
It’s pretty good, I have the premium version, and it’s amazing, though I would recommend switching to Bitdefender since it’s the best AV on the market right now, right up there with Kaspersky, which I won’t purchase since it is Russian software.
I’m trying to figure a program to use and could use some advice apparently avast, mcafee, kap, aomt no good
Unlike reputable companies, avast will not refund when you cancel a product before its expiration. Don’t give them your credit card number. They’ll rip you off and bill you for stuff you didn’t order.
“Hacked multiple times”. Community forums (3rd party software) and Piriform before it was acquired by avast!. Wow, really so much hacked. The whole privacy thing was so overblown I can’t roll my eyes hard enough. And this shit keeps being repeated by people who seem to have no clue about anything, but just keep repeating shit like brain dead parrots.
Thank you for the recommendation. When i install the Kaspersky Security Cloud, it say that I have other incompatible program install (comodo firewall), would that affect the Kaspersky Security Cloud? Should I uninstall comodo firewall?
kaspersky is one of the best, but it is based in russia, so the chances are that your info goes somewhere.