Avast used to work really well for me, but recently whenever it does something, my computer grinds to a halt, and responsiveness is limited to the mouse. Beyond that, I'm continually sent scare tactic notifications like "people can see you" and "your address is *******" and "your IP is ******" and "you're vulnerable to hackers now", or things along those lines.
not only is the information usually wrong, it's shown up when I've been streaming or in calls with clients, and is really freaking messing with me, even if I know it's false information and all publicly available anyway.
I'm just kidding. I know it's not being hacked. but you know what? I really, REALLY don't appreciate this. My father, older, and with heart issues has come to me, panicked that he'd been hacked, and I had to calmly explain to him that this is how things work now. it's disgusting, and it needs to stop. I can handle this, but at some point, when a prospective client is watching my screen and avast pops up and tells them my personal information and that I supposedly have inferior data protection, it's affecting business, AND BEING A SECURITY RISK. -And I know what you'll say: "just get business protection." well, I considered it. Then the scare tactics started and I stopped considering it. It's been over a year now, and I'm finally sick and tired of it. Avast used to be respectable, but now I have to convince people it's not a virus. I used to evangelize it, now I can't help but demonize it. I got it because I thought proper internet safety should by free, seeing as many places and careers now consider internet access a necessity.
There's this kind of thing called "ransomware" ... and I hate to say it, but the way avast works, suddenly slowing down my computer to a standstill, where I can't even open a webpage, causing program crashes due to limited system resources during updates, telling me I can fix security issues or speed up my computer if I pay them, having a "report performance issue" button that can't be clicked when the performance drops... it's an awfully familiar MO.