Avira Criticized for Recommending Controversial Product

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Jack

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Avira has stirred up some controversy among users after deciding to display ads for a third-party registry cleaner within the free version of its antivirus product.

Avira AntiVir Personal, the free solution offered by the German security vendor, is one of the most popular anti-malware products on the market today and has over 100 million users.

It seems that Avira recently partnered up with Uniblue, the owners of ProcessLibrary.com, a database of information about Windows processes, and creators of several software products.

The partnership between the two companies requires Avira to display ads for Uniblue RegistryBooster within AntiVir Personal.

These ads have taken users by surprise and have even upset the more knowledgeable ones as Uniblue RegistryBooster doesn't have a good reputation in the security community.


In fact, some security enthusiasts consider the product to be scareware, not necessarily due to its functionality, but because of the aggressive advertising tactics employed by Uniblue.


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Jack

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The Uniblue products are useless and expensive,I've installed on my system, 3 years ago Uniblue DriveScan and RegistryBooster due to the high amount of advertise that I've seen.All I can say is that the Uniblue marketing team deservers their paycheck ,the product itself is no better than a free one,in fact it's worse.
Avira had only one thing in mind when they've "recommended" Uniblue.... MONEY.
As for .....
In addition to the RegistryBooster controversy, Avira seems to have also upset some users by bundling a rebranded version of the Ask toolbar in the upcoming AntiVir Personal SP2. Screenshots published by the company suggest that a Web protection component called WebGuard cannot be installed without this toolbar.
While all the big vendors are trying to stay away or removing any 3rd party toolbars ,Avira has decided to bundle with their Free Av some useless and unwanted toolbar... Unacceptable! ..
license_agree.jpg

As an advice,be sure to uncheck the Ask Toolbar when installing Avira Free SP2. :)
At this point if I were an Avira user and saw the Toolbar on my browser...I would most likely uninstall Avira and install MSE. ;)
 

jamescv7

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Hope Avira may change their decision thus consequences are making worst.

Softpedia make Avira Free from freeware to ad-supported.
 
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Guest28

shame on you avira. I will not install another product of yours till you fix your issues this is disgusting especially coming from a trusted company but not anymore.
 

jamescv7

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acuariano said:
looks they removed the uniblue nag

How you will confirm it? Anyway on the Avira forum still the thread was open, I'm waiting for some new happenings with this partnership in controversial product and how Avira will react on this.
 
G

Guest28

but adding a tool bar to the free product? come on............... seriously there are already ADS in the product.
 

Dejan

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Mar 3, 2011
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This is one of the reasons I stopped using Avira products, their getting more aggressive with advertisement, weather it be for them or another company. I already see a lot of ads for RegistryBooster and it has bad rep on WOT, so I wouldn't at all use their products or trust them.
 

Ramblin

Level 3
May 14, 2011
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I think the worst part of all is that Avira used to detect both, Uniblue and
Ask. That makes, making money with them, look terrible.

Bo
 

Jack

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Maybe if the advertise was for a good and reliable product the critics wouldn't be so bad.....
The worst part in all this new updates is the Ask Toolbar and how Avira decided to "sell it" ... Avira does suggest that a Web protection component called WebGuard cannot be installed without this toolbar so many users will most likely use it ,just because they will believe that this increase their protection.
 
D

Deleted member 178

it is long time avira was lost for me. sometimes i check the updates to see what's new. but now i dont need to do it anymore. one day it will not be free ^^
 

LoftedAphid86

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Feb 24, 2011
1,107
They have been doing this for some time now, both Avira GmbH their products seem to be slipping away from their original greatness at an alarming rate.
 

TKFlight

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May 19, 2011
82
Remember the time when it was all Avira? I remember a few years ago Avira's Hueristics were amazing, barely anything could get by. It seems they are falling behind now. They had a great product, to bad its now being ruined with this kind of stuff. I mean, I can deal with their little advertisement in the free version. But when someone is offering me Uniblue junk, its irritating.
 
D

Deleted member 178

TKFlight said:
Remember the time when it was all Avira? I remember a few years ago Avira's Hueristics were amazing, barely anything could get by.

agree, before when someone asked you what is the best AV, Avira came in the top 3, now...
 

Jack

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AVIRA said:
Avira’s partnership with Uniblue
======

To our valued users:


Recently, some of you have gotten in touch with us to express concerns regarding a Uniblue promotion we ran in the United States. Uniblue is a company which develops and promotes PC Utility software. The offering of Uniblue was a registry scanner, which would allow our users to make 15 repairs free of charge. If the user finds the service valuable, they are offered to buy the full version, which does not have any repair limits. If the user does not feel the service fulfilled it’s promise, Uniblue offers a 30 day money back guarantee.

Avira has relationships with many vendors whose products offer functionality we believe our users will value. As an example, we have recently established a partnership with ask.com, to develop the Avira SearchFree Toolbar. The toolbar will be available for our “Free” users as part of service pack 2 this summer, if opted by the user to install they will receive additional web security features previously only available to our paying customers.

We depend on your feedback in order to develop security products of the highest quality. For that reason, your input is always encouraged and greatly appreciated. We urge any user who suspects abuse or mistreatment to contact us without delay.

Kind regards,

Your Avira Team

Link
 

jamescv7

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Mar 15, 2011
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At least they are still accepting feedback, but hope feedback from the people may reflect on their decision to remove the partnership with Uniblue and the toolbar from Ask. Also when they released a major version they must remove ads.
 

TKFlight

New Member
May 19, 2011
82
Well, they said all the right things in that statement. I think what is really making people mad, is that to some people think Uniblue products are considered crap-ware.
 

Littlebits

Retired Staff
May 3, 2011
3,893
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.:D
 
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