I have never downloaded Avast
I have never heard of and never downloaded CCleaner or Piriform or any of the other supposed ways Avast 'piggybacks' onto peoples devices.
I have not downloaded any new software onto my laptop for months and I have very limited software programs on my laptop. Microsoft Office, Intel, Adobe PDF reader, Google Chrome and the standard Windows 10 suite.
And yet, today I get a 'Pop up' telling me I need to open my Avast Secureline VPN App and click to stop my IP address being publicly available. I then see that apparently I have recently added this App and I have just tried to uninstall only to be told I cannot remove all parts of it and it is still listed in the programs that run on start up.
Does anyone have any suggestions how I can protect myself from Avast and their illegally invasive software?