Advice Request AVAST/AVG trustworthy again or not?

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I've never really understood why people feel commercial companies should give you something for nothing, (kindness?) they really can’t - All the wonderful things Google, Zucker etc are all paid for directly or indirectly by your data - A good friend of often used the phase 'No such thing as a free lunch' & he was right - There are alternatives to free AV's, & of course WD but MS gets a fair amount of telemetry - Paying for an AV may not change everything, but may improve things - Why is a product apparently free?
 
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Cortex said:
I've never really understood why people feel commercial companies should give you something for nothing, (kindness?) they really can’t - All the wonderful things Google, Zucker etc are all paid for directly or indirectly by your data - A good friend of often used the phase 'No such thing as a free lunch' & he was right - There are alternatives to free AV's, & of course WD but MS gets a fair amount of telemetry - Paying for an AV may not change everything, but may improve things - Why is a product apparently free?
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Well, to be honest, MS telemetry only helps to improve the OS, they do not sell the data to the highest bidder.
IMHO, whoever disables Windows telemetry is missing the point on what telemetry actually is.
 
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I do disagree (though a different subject) that much of the telemetry that goes of the Redmond has not so much to do with improving the OS more to do with understanding it's users more so with Windows 10 than in the past, which probably explains why we no longer buy a Windows licence with each update, & why many members on here use progs such as O&O Shut-Up?
As for selling to the highest bidder, you really don't get any bigger than MS themselves?

In the UK we have a system for those who wish to work with vulnerable people etc called 'Disclose Barring Service' - You are checked out & if you have committed any offences etc if not you get a certificate (I have a drawer full) - It's a good idea & roots out people who shouldn't be working with vulnerable people in my case - But it doesn't totally do that, it only bars the ones who have been (maybe idiots) actually caught. Maybe the the clever ones who have done wrong & never get caught slip though.

I don't approve at what AVAST did but it seemed to me they never really thought they had done wrong & a while before published detailed info on insight gained from this data, I remember Fabian from Emsisoft commenting on this - AVAST got caught, are you safer with other companies, probably not? Are they all at it? We don't know?
Edited
 
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The Cog in the Machine said:
No need as they are other alternatives. I will not be renewing my subscription.
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I think i will no longer use free Avast-AVG :rolleyes: i gave them a chance after the data selling and now they want to sell data again ?! Pfff
Edit: Ow seems like an old article! ... (thinking hmz)
 
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Gandalf_The_Grey said:
The answer is still no, they still try to gain and sell as much user data as possible:

So, they are still collecting it now and ask permission after the fact (n)
www.pcmag.com

Avast Defends Data Harvesting, Plans to Get Users to Agree to It

On Tuesday, Avast responded to a PCMag-Motherboard investigation into the company's browser history collection practices, saying it was entirely legal. Avast users should expect to see a prompt from the antivirus products, asking them to consent to the data harvesting.
www.pcmag.com www.pcmag.com
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Look at the date on that article.. last year.
 
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Cortex said:
Why is a product apparently free?
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Not a general case scenario. Apart from big conglomerates having a free version to their products, the smaller companies/individuals do it for passion and for the community. Apparently it's not their main job. A good example is Hibit Uninstaller , FastCopy and Musicbee . Each one the best in it's class and way ahead of it's competitors despite being free.
 
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Gandalf_The_Grey said:
The answer is still no, they still try to gain and sell as much user data as possible:

So, they are still collecting it now and ask permission after the fact (n)
www.pcmag.com

Avast Defends Data Harvesting, Plans to Get Users to Agree to It

On Tuesday, Avast responded to a PCMag-Motherboard investigation into the company's browser history collection practices, saying it was entirely legal. Avast users should expect to see a prompt from the antivirus products, asking them to consent to the data harvesting.
www.pcmag.com www.pcmag.com
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This is one year old, jump shot was still active.
 
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venustus said:
Would you recommend Avast over Bitdefender?
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Yes, but Avast has some unique issues Bitdefender will not, and vice versa.

In reality, I have seen there are less bugs in a rebranded/OEM/SDK product than the actual product itself.

For example, its far more intuitive to use BullGuard over Avira, Vipre or Total Defense over Bitdefender, AVG over Avast (this one mainly because of less bloatware - bugs are the same in both).
 
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Tiamati said:
I was checking AVAST yesterday, and i had the impression it was a little heavier than KSC free. Anyway, i must admit i liked AVAST could protect BRAVE (which neither Bitdefender nor Kaspersky protect). Kudos to AVAST for this.

BTW guys, there is any diference between AVAST and AVG nowadays? I know they use the same engine, but i don't have any idea about which free version is more complete.
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FYI: eScan protects when using Brave, but it's web filtering is mediocre (though you'll still get the benefits of web/http/https scanning).
 
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