Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: blove on February 06, 2014, 10:08:00 PM
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How to permanently disable Avast popup advertisement spam?
Windows 7
avast! Internet Security
2014.9.0.2013
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What pop-up?
Screenshot?
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...
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Official spam from a product with an anti-spam feature...
Thanks for the acknowledgement of your spam.
It was not the answer I was hoping for, but it is an answer.
It is also the answer that results in me, a LONG time paid user, no longer using or recommending your product due to your "method" of spam.
<br><br><br></font>------ Original Message ------<br>
<b>Received: </b>Tue, 11 Feb 2014 04:05:13 AM CST<br>
<b>From: </b>avast! support <helpdesk@avast.com><br>
<b>To: </b>xxxxx<br>
<b>Subject: </b>[#xxxxx]: Avast Popup Advertisements<br>
<br><br>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Hello Benny!<br />
<br />
>I am NOT okay with Avast popup ADVERTISEMENTS<br />
<br />
I understand. Please follow the suggestions xxxxx provided, it should reduce the advertisements, if not remove them.<br />
<br />
>Disabling features can not be the only way<br />
<br />
You're not supposed to disabled any security feature, just set avast! to silent mode, which seems to be exactly what you're looking for. In this mode, the pop-ups are not displayed.<br />
<br />
Please understand that we are commercial company and the advertisements is one of the method how to succeed on the market. We're glad that you paid for the better version of our antivirus after using the free version for so many years. But please understand that you did not pay for a version without any advertisements, but for version that provides more security.<br />
<br />
So again - if you're tired of the pop-up advertisements, please follow the instructions of xxxxx.<br />
<br />
Best regards,<br />
<br />xxxxx, senior technical support supervisor
<br /><br />
Ticket Details<br />
<hr style="margin-bottom: 6px; height: 1px; BORDER: none; color: #cfcfcf; background-color: #cfcfcf;" />
Ticket ID: xxxxx<br />
Department: Technical Support (Consumer AV)<br />
Type: Communication<br />
Status: <font color="#ffffff">On Hold</font><br />
Priority: <font color="#45991c">Normal</font><br />
<br />
Support Center: <a href="https://support.avast.com/index.php?" target="_blank">https://support.avast.com/index.php?</a><br />
</font>
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Those are not spam. They are probably part of an ongoing issue involving wrongly worded
vps updates. To turn these off is simple...
GUI>Settings>Updates>scroll down to and open "details">untick the box shown. :)
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I just re-read your post.
Guess what...it seems as if avast is now using this form of advertising.
It should be piggy-backed with a vps update.
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This is intriguing as I have yet to experience this... Maybe they like the Cornish :)
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I got the news via a PM from AdrianH.
This was to say the least news to me.
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How to remove this "seasonal sale" thing? What happened to the good old Avast?
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So if someone wants to buy the AVAST software would you recommend it ?
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This is intriguing as I have yet to experience this... Maybe they like the Cornish :)
To me they like me and they like me not. These advert, piggy- backing VPS alerts, come and goes. Right now I have had several days with regular VPS alerts.
So if someone wants to buy the AVAST software would you recommend it ?
Of course... avast! is great; However, as everything you buy it is better to try it first running the trial version.
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Example from just now.
(http://i.imgur.com/cOgk0tU.jpg)
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How to remove this "seasonal sale" thing? What happened to the good old Avast?
Personally, this trend isn't all that surprising to me. I suspected that there might be a shift in this direction - to more aggressive marketing - when they hired a CEO who is a former Symantec executive: "vice president of worldwide consumer sales at Symantec, running it's international sales organization."
It wasn't hard to predict a similar focus from him at avast!. This is not to suggest that he's imposing his will on the company - more likely that he's fulfilling his mandate from the Board of Directors.
While there's often focus on the growth in numbers of end users of avast! products over the past few years, it's not often mentioned that the company itself has undergone significant personnel growth at the same time. This takes revenue.
Go to the "About Us" -> "Company" link from the avast! home page. Look at the "History" timeline at the bottom. Clicking on each yearly node will give a brief highlight of that year. In 2007 they had 38 employees. In 2008 they had 60 employees. In 2009 they had 100 employees. In 2011 they had over 150 employees. In 2012 they had over 200 employees. In 2013-present it's over 300 employees.
The company has had financial partners pour money into the company's coffers. Such backers expect their investments to pay off - they're not altruistic. See these:
Growth Equity Investor Summit Partners Invests $100M in AVAST Software
Leading Antivirus Software Developer Positioned for Continued Growth
August 23, 2010
http://www.summitpartners.com/Growth-Equity-Investor-Summit-Partners-invests-100-million-in-AVAST-Software.aspx
AVAST expands into the USA (with a little help from our friends!)
https://blog.avast.com/2014/02/07/avast-expands-into-the-usa-with-a-little-help-from-our-friends-2/
Security Software Firm Avast Gets CVC Capital Investment, Now Valued At $1B
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/security-software-firm-avast-takes-cvc-capital-investment-at-a-1b-valuation/
It's not "the little company that could" anymore - it's a major corporation. Expect continued emphasis on aggressive growth - in users, customers, and revenue.
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That's pretty sad. :( Then asking why people use pirated versions of the software is illogical. I don't like the so called aggressive marketing. Who does? Avast is famous enough to not rely on bloatware. Just my honest opinion.
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That's pretty sad. :( Then asking why people use pirated versions of the software is illogical.
Why is it illogical ??? not only is it theft and against the law to use pirated software but if ads are added into the paid versions then you are going to receive the same ads with a pirated version as well ::) plus with running a pirated version you are risking having your AV disabled and leaving you with no protection whatsoever.
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That's pretty sad. :( Then asking why people use pirated versions of the software is illogical.
Why is it illogical ??? not only is it theft and against the law to use pirated software but if ads are added into the paid versions then you are going to receive the same ads with a pirated version as well ::) plus with running a pirated version you are risking having your AV disabled and leaving you with no protection whatsoever.
Do you even read? I'm talking about the "seasonal sale" on the main UI panel. I can very easily block it with firewall, but that's not the question here. I liked Avast very much in the past. Why must all good things be ruined these days? Money? How much money can buy people's trust? 1 billion? 2? 100?
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That's pretty sad. :( Then asking why people use pirated versions of the software is illogical.
Why is it illogical ??? not only is it theft and against the law to use pirated software but if ads are added into the paid versions then you are going to receive the same ads with a pirated version as well ::) plus with running a pirated version you are risking having your AV disabled and leaving you with no protection whatsoever.
Do you even read? I'm talking about the "seasonal sale" on the main UI panel. I can very easily block it with firewall, but that's not the question here. I liked Avast very much in the past. Why must all good things be ruined these days? Money? How much money can buy people's trust? 1 billion? 2? 100?
I read and understand all to well that if the dishonest slime balls who are using cracked software were to actually pay for what they have then a lot of software might not be quite as expensive, companies have to make money and losses through theft only end up hitting the pockets of consumers.
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That's pretty sad. :( Then asking why people use pirated versions of the software is illogical.
Why is it illogical ??? not only is it theft and against the law to use pirated software but if ads are added into the paid versions then you are going to receive the same ads with a pirated version as well ::) plus with running a pirated version you are risking having your AV disabled and leaving you with no protection whatsoever.
Do you even read? I'm talking about the "seasonal sale" on the main UI panel. I can very easily block it with firewall, but that's not the question here. I liked Avast very much in the past. Why must all good things be ruined these days? Money? How much money can buy people's trust? 1 billion? 2? 100?
I read and understand all to well that if the dishonest slime balls who are using cracked software were to actually pay for what they have then a lot of software might not be quite as expensive, companies have to make money and losses through theft only end up hitting the pockets of consumers.
What about the people who can't afford to pay for license? Should they be punished with spam, cause they are poor?
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What about the people who can't afford to pay for license? Should they be punished with spam, cause they are poor?
If they cant afford or don't want to pay then that's what the free version is for, as already mentioned if the paid version gets ad's then a pirated version wont stop ads and I hardly call the few popup ads that we receive in the free version as spam and their to be expected for using a free version.
And the seasonal sale in the UI is not spam, spam is thrown in your face screen hoggin ads which the UI is not, plus you don't have to look at it do you ::)
And on top of that - if these people were so poor then how did they afford a computer ???
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What about the people who can't afford to pay for license? Should they be punished with spam, cause they are poor?
If they cant afford or don't want to pay then that's what the free version is for, as already mentioned if the paid version gets ad's then a pirated version wont stop ads and I hardly call the few popup ads that we receive in the free version as spam and their to be expected for using a free version.
And the seasonal sale in the UI is not spam, spam is thrown in your face screen hoggin ads which the UI is not, plus you don't have to look at it do you ::)
If they can't afford it, the seasonal sale won't work either. And again, I'm not talking about any popup ads here.
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What about the people who can't afford to pay for license? Should they be punished with spam, cause they are poor?
If they cant afford or don't want to pay then that's what the free version is for, as already mentioned if the paid version gets ad's then a pirated version wont stop ads and I hardly call the few popup ads that we receive in the free version as spam and their to be expected for using a free version.
And the seasonal sale in the UI is not spam, spam is thrown in your face screen hoggin ads which the UI is not, plus you don't have to look at it do you ::)
If they can't afford it, the seasonal sale won't work either. And again, I'm not talking about any popup ads here.
And how do you expect avast to know which ones cant afford for it to not be shown ??? it's shown to everyone.
You cant just keep twisting things to suit you own view, the simple answer is if you don't like it then don't use it.
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What about the people who can't afford to pay for license? Should they be punished with spam, cause they are poor?
If they cant afford or don't want to pay then that's what the free version is for, as already mentioned if the paid version gets ad's then a pirated version wont stop ads and I hardly call the few popup ads that we receive in the free version as spam and their to be expected for using a free version.
And the seasonal sale in the UI is not spam, spam is thrown in your face screen hoggin ads which the UI is not, plus you don't have to look at it do you ::)
If they can't afford it, the seasonal sale won't work either. And again, I'm not talking about any popup ads here.
And how do you expect avast to know which ones cant afford for it to not be shown ??? it's shown to everyone.
You cant just keep twisting things to suit you own view, the simple answer is if you don't like it then don't use it.
Because there are trial version for those who can afford it. See? As simple as that.
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Because there are trial version for those who can afford it. See? As simple as that.
Trial versions are for everyone, if they don't like or cant afford then use the free and if they don't want the free then go elsewhere.
Using pirated software is illegal and that all there is to it.
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Because there are trial version for those who can afford it. See? As simple as that.
Trial versions are for everyone, if they don't like or cant afford then use the free and if they don't want the free then go elsewhere.
Using pirated software is illegal and that all there is to it.
But this makes no sense. Trial versions are made for people to test commercial software, and then buy if satisfied. Why should I test free version if it's far from similar to the paid one? How can I decide to buy the paid version after using the free version? Do you think that a nagging screen can make me buy it? It only can start a threads like this one.
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But this makes no sense. Trial versions are made for people to test commercial software, and then buy if satisfied. Why should I test free version if it's far from similar to the paid one? How can I decide to buy the paid version after using the free version? Do you think that a nagging screen can make me buy it? It only can start a threads like this one.
The protection offered by the free version is the same as the paid other than a few extra added features.
It's obvious the ad for "paid" placed in the free version must bring in revenue as avast would have the details on where customers are purchasing through, if it didn't work then it wouldn't be there would it.
Like I said you don't have to look at the UI ad, what's the point in sitting there staring at the UI - you open the UI and do what you have to do ( adjust settings, check virus chest, etc ) then close it, if the ad placed in the UI bothers you that much you are quite welcome to use something else but don't expect people to condone the use of pirated avast licenses simply because you don't like an ad.
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I have no idea what you two guys are hijacking my thread about...
I am fine with an email or banner ads in the user interface to push products (although...Avast did use an emergency update to push the seasonal sale, naughty). But, popups are not fine and neither is telling a customer to turn off all notifications to "disable" them.
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I have no idea what you two guys are hijacking my thread about...
Sorry about that but if you were to go back a page and read you would see Tarantula was trying to condone to use of pirated versions to escape ads in the free version, frankly speaking I think users with this sort of agenda should be banned outright.
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(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png)
Now can we get back to complaining about the spam notifications?
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if you go back Para-Noid and myself answered your question. These adverts piggy-backing the regular vps alerts are a nuisance. Some of us have it others like essexboy have never suffered them, and yes you are right when you said that turning off notifications is not the solution; However, there is no official word from avast! why this is happening.
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I think we are both missing your answer. Perhaps you can repost it?
Please understand that we are commercial company and the advertisements is one of the method how to succeed on the market. We're glad that you paid for the better version of our antivirus after using the free version for so many years. But please understand that you did not pay for a version without any advertisements, but for version that provides more security.
The senior technical support supervisor is quite clear and official about why this is happening. There is no piggy-back issue. The spam is intentional.
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Well my experience is that I would tend to disagree with that. I have never received any ad popups or the like since I have been using AIS and prior to that the Pro version. Unless they just really like me
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Make yourself invisible.
(http://i.imgur.com/YbTmOcz.jpg)
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Make yourself invisible.
(http://i.imgur.com/YbTmOcz.jpg)
Disabling the avast! SecureLine icon on system tray (into Appearance settings of avast!) helps or not?
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Will try and report back.
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Nope, still comes up even with tray icon disabled.
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Secure line has nothing to do with this, most people won't have secure line.
These ads/tips are piggybacked on to the auto update notification popup, the problem being if there is an ad attaches it screws up the auto update notification (no update voice-over and popup duration is ignored).
The resolution is to disable the auto update notification avastUI > Settings > Update - scroll down to Update Options and uncheck the 'Show notification box after automatic update.'
Of course you then lose the auto update notification proper also. Depending on OS, you can hover the mouse over the avast tray icon and that will give a tool tip with the avast version and VPS.