Privacy News Avast pulls the latest version of CCleaner following privacy controversy

vtqhtr413

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Piriform rolled out updates for CCleaner on a monthly basis, and this is something that has continued since Avast took over. The latest update, CCleaner 5.45, wasn’t at all well received due to a number of changes affecting privacy, and the company’s response to the matter proved to be unsatisfactory -- to say the least. Now it seems that Avast has seen the light, and pulled the latest update. The current version available is 5.44. On its forums the company had this to say:

"Thank you all for your continued feedback (positive and negative, it all helps). I wanted to give a quick progress update on what we're doing. We’re currently working on separating out cleaning functionality from analytics reporting and offering more user control options which will be remembered when CCleaner is closed. We’re also creating a fact sheet to share which will outline the data we collect, for which purposes and how it is processed."

Today we have removed v5.45 and reverted to v5.44 as the main download for CCleaner while we work on a new version with several key improvements. You can grab version 5.44 from one of the links below:​
(File hashes here: CCleaner v5.44.6575)​
Software Changes
As stated before, we'll split cleaning alerts (which don't send any data) from UI trend data (which is anonymous and only there to measure the user experience) and provide a separate setting for each in the user preferences. Some of these features run as a separate process from the UI: we'll restore visibility of this in the notifications area, and you'll be able to close it down from that icon menu as before.​
We understand the importance of this to you all. This work is our number 1 priority and we are taking the time to get it right in the next release. There are numerous changes required, so that does mean it will take weeks, not days. While we work on this, we have removed version 5.45 and reinstated version 5.44.​

It’s fair to say, Avast has lost more than a few users following this controversy -- and past bad behavior -- and it will be interesting to see if it can win them back.
 
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LDogg

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Not really, more like they have realized, that they are going too fast, especially since they are under scrutiny.
They will wait for several months, until the dust settles down and then they will do it again, nice and quiet.
Till someone find out telemetry setting in CCleaner is still taking data.

I've always said that in this modern technological age, data is the new oil.

~LDogg
 
F

ForgottenSeer 72227

Avast is going downhill and fast. It's no longer a company I would recommend.

I've stopped recommending Avast for a while now. They are definitely not the same company as they were way back. Personally I feel like they are more of an advertisement company rather than a security company. I find it funny because not long ago I remember reading posts (on various forums) from VLK (I think it was from Avast) asking for feedback and that they are going to listen to their customers, well that fell on def ears pretty quickly as they still went on their merry way ignoring the feedback they were getting.
 

spaceoctopus

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It's some ''good'' news concerning this issue. Anyway like many have said, Avast! (n) is difficult to trust now and they are too much focused on money and data harvesting.

Like @TairikuOkami said, they will find some way to get what they wanted another time. If they intentionally tried to trick users, well, it reveals a lot about their intentions and practices.

They are also planning to enter the stock market, so they are trying to get whatever they can, at any price possible, to have the more value.
 
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Moonhorse

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I still see it in task manager. Pro version and latest version. Or are you talking about version 5.44?
Their latest release were 5.45, but they removed it ( due feedback) and their current latest is previous one (5.44)

You have to upgrade ( downgrade in this situation) from 5.45 > 5.44

''Today we have removed v5.45 and reverted to v5.44 as the main download for CCleaner while we work on a new version with several key improvements. ''
 

vtqhtr413

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Will going portable with Cleaner make any difference?

In the past, I would test these type of software by taking a snapshot and then running one before the other than going back to the snapshot and than testing them in reverse, what I found over time was that most are not very honest, one that I found that was honest was Privazer and I can't speak for it today becuase I use the built in apps in Win 10 and feel confident in doing so, to each there own. I like reading about other members experiences with these apps so post on, I'll appreciate it minimum. It would seem by other members posts that the portible version is less intrusive so probably, what Umbra just said :unsure:
 
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