Avira Privacy Pal - First look by ghacks

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LASER_oneXM

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Security company Avira, best know for its antivirus products, launched Privacy Pal yesterday which promises to reveal privacy issues on Windows, prevent (select) tracking on the device, and remove digital traces it finds from the system. Think of CCleaner meets a Windows 10 Privacy tool.

Avira Privacy Pal is a free software program that you may download from the company website. The program is available for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and newer versions of the operating system including Windows 10.
Read more: Avira Privacy Pal first look - gHacks Tech News
 
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zzz00m

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It's worth a look. I tried it out today.

I'll stick to CCleaner for the selective cookie cleaning and general browser cleaning, because Privacy Pal browser cleaning is a bit aggressive, and non-selective, so it can clean out 1st party cookies you may want to keep.

It takes some digging to find them but the 'Expert View' page, but that's the best part!

  • OS: Stops Microsoft from experimenting with your Windows installation as it studies user preferences
  • User: Keeps Windows from tracking app launches and shuts out Cortana from accessing your location
  • Apps: Disables Windows Store apps running in the background from sending or receiving information
  • Browser: Disables web tracking and the ability to easily identify the current user over the internet
  • Network: Hides your computer from other devices on the network
 

Ink

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Are there benefits for Privacy Pal by registering with Avira?
Is registration optional?
 

zzz00m

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Jun 10, 2017
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It's worth a look. I tried it out today.

I'll stick to CCleaner for the selective cookie cleaning and general browser cleaning, because Privacy Pal browser cleaning is a bit aggressive, and non-selective, so it can clean out 1st party cookies you may want to keep.

It takes some digging to find them but the 'Expert View' page, but that's the best part!

  • OS: Stops Microsoft from experimenting with your Windows installation as it studies user preferences
  • User: Keeps Windows from tracking app launches and shuts out Cortana from accessing your location
  • Apps: Disables Windows Store apps running in the background from sending or receiving information
  • Browser: Disables web tracking and the ability to easily identify the current user over the internet
  • Network: Hides your computer from other devices on the network

Update: I uninstalled Privacy Pal after having a look around. This product is too opaque for me, but I have nothing against Avira as a company. Their privacy policy seems acceptable.
 
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zzz00m

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Jun 10, 2017
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Source: Q&A - Norton Security - Web Guard: Is it any good?

If you don't want Avira Launcher, don't use Privacy Pal.

I use Avira Pro as my AV, and I have learned to put up with the launcher. Although it is a bit silly, and seems unnecessary.

And I understand that some folks cannot stand it, and I get that, but it really doesn't use much system resources.

But for me the things that really matter most are that Avira is not based in a five-eyes country, Five Eyes - Wikipedia , but rather in Germany, and it consistently scores as well as Kaspersky and Bitdefender do in 3rd party AV tests.

Plus their Privacy policy seems reasonable, as well. You could do worse!

Bottom line I do think that this new Privacy product has potential to manage the flaws in Windows 10 privacy, but needs better controls and documentation, before it's ready for prime time.
 
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