Even if Avira removes with partnerships with Uniblue and Ask.com, the damage is done.
Many security sites have already begun to removing Avira products.
It was a very stupid decision for Avira to make partnerships with rogue companies that they once detected as malware in the past.
Some may ask Avira why it these products no longer detected? Oh, it's because you signed an agreement with them to make money. Who's side are you on?
I can understand advertisements in the free version to an extent, but not for known rogue products. There are many trusted vendors out they could have used for a toolbar like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.
There are many trusted companies that could have advertised like TuneUp Utilities, Acronis, jv16 PowerTools, Auslogics, Ashampoo, Yamicsoft. etc. to name a few. But no they choose one of the worst Uniblue.
This even affects their paid users who still received emails to install Uniblue products and the fact that they paid for Avira and it's not detecting these rogue products because they are not getting quality protection. How may more products are they no longer detecting for payoffs?
What surprises me even more is there are several threads on the Avira forum asking for help because Uniblue products mess up their systems long before Avira made this partnership.
I even read one thread where a user claimed that Registry Booster corrupted Avira's installation.
From what I know about Registry Booster, not only does it not help your system in any way but causes errors and corruptions much like a virus would.
It deletes many important registry keys needed by Windows OS as the end result you get errors, BSOD, corruptions, etc. So it is more than just rogueware, it is dangerous like a virus.
All Uniblue products are complete crap. There are many freeware products which are better and more safe to use.
Thanks.