I've filled out surveys, I've sent critique e-mails. I get ignored.
The invasive pop-ups on the free version have made Avast Free Edition utterly unusable. They pop up at random, multiple times a day, with zero way to disable them even in the so-called "Silent Mode." They track what sites I browse. They display my IP address with no warning. They've shown a pinpoint on Google Maps where my location is, telling me I need a VPN to hide it. They tell me hackers can see what I do online. They tell me my bank information is exposed and that I need some security product I can't be arsed to remember the name of.
I do livestreams on occasion. I don't need your software doxxing me at random to my viewers. This has gone completely off the rails. It used to be once a month I'd see a popup, but suddenly this year it has become aggressively a daily fight with them.
Bottom line is this. I've switched to Bitdefender because of how unusable you guys have made the free version.
If your company can't finance a free edition of your software without resorting to Facebook levels of invasive targeted advertising and browser telemetry that can't be turned off, then you shouldn't offer a free version at all. Simple as that. ESET has no true free version. I'd like to make the suggestion that you follow their lead and stick to a trial version model instead of targeted advertising.
