Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: REDACTED on June 12, 2017, 05:23:56 PM
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Hello. Long time Avast user here. Color me surprised when I went to send a professional email response this morning, and after sending, noticed this tacky "Virus-free. www.avast.com" advert attached as my personal email signature. Apparently, this is a 'feature' that has been around since 2015, but this is the first time I have ever noticed it. Even checking emails that I sent a few months ago, none of them had said unwanted signature injection. I've already done plenty of free advertising for Avast by recommending it to friends and clients. I'd like to continue to do so, as the program itself is fantastic, but please, I would imagine nobody would want something injecting itself into their emails without their consent.
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Hi, you can disable it in the settings.
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Well sure, you can, and I've already done so. I brought it up because it shouldn't be enabled by default; we're talking about actively putting something into the user's emails without their approval first. That's not the kind of 'feature' you enable without consent of the user. It's also worrisome that it seems random as to when it gets turned on for the first time; I'd never even been aware of the setting until today, despite others already having this issue since at least 2015, so I'm not sure if it's either random, or a decision was made recently to make it enabled by default again. Regardless, I think this is a feature that either users turn on themselves, or Avast actually prompts the users for permission first. I can't imagine anyone would want any program on their machine inserting something into their emails without their permission first.
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By installing avast, you did approve it.
As with about all applications it is a good practice to go over the settings and learn what they are/do and change them to your need.
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If I get one more incident like this where Avast decides to advertise itself through me without my explicit prior consent or surreptitiously does anything other than protect my computer with the base program that I originally installed, I will have to switch antivirus software. Doesn't matter if you technically get consent through an EULA, this is a breach of user trust. I'm not going to go through the settings of my antivirus every time it updates just to see how I'm being taken advantage of this time.
This is the only post I have ever made on this forum, which should be some indication of how upset I am about this.
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How then are you going to find out if any new settings have been added or modified.
This one had been there for years, just that it was in the Mail Shield settings now it is in a more prominent location AvastUI > Settings > General 'Enable Avast email signature.' This would apply to email client and web mail, It is however relatively recent that it has been available for web mail.
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Just wanted to add that after I disabled this "feature" it re-enabled itself. Currently looking for a replacement to Avast.
Edit: Avira it is
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Just wanted to add that after I disabled this "feature" it re-enabled itself. Currently looking for a replacement to Avast.
Edit: Avira it is
Dana, it shouldn't re-enable automatically. I think you probably missed to click OK after making the changes.
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@ Dana37
I have avast free on three systems and I have that email signature disabled on all of them and none have experienced your issue of the settings reverting.
There is something very strange going on with your installation as this isn't something that should happen, by design of accident.
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It only happens if you forget to click on the OK button at the bottom.
Without OK, the change never happens.
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I see this is an old thread, but this "feature" keeps enabling itself with updates. Extremely annoying as it only serves to advertise the software. Nobody is looking at the email signature and feeling better because it says the email is virus free. Forced stuff like this does make software less user friendly and desirable for use. The pop-ups avast has are bad enough.
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...but this "feature" keeps enabling itself with updates.
Can't confirm, I disabled it years ago and it never returned.