App Review Block Avast Antivirus Telemetry, Ads, Popups and Overseer without Blocking avastui.exe

It is advised to take all reviews with a grain of salt. In extreme cases some reviews use dramatization for entertainment purposes.

Evjl's Rain

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Is HOSTS file even working? Last time I heard it is ignored on latest Windows 10.
it works. You can see in the video that the ad went missing after applying the hosts + when I use tcpview, the ad domain becomes 0.0.0.0 instead of a specific set of numbers

hosts is only ignored by windows-related stuffs but not third-party apps
 

Evjl's Rain

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Is this list verified that it only blocks analytics and ads and doesn't interfere with avast!'s cloud functionality? Coz that's very important thing to be sure of.
I have been using the list for a year at least. I have never seen any problem with it. Cloud, hardened mode and Behavior shield are stull fully functional

recently I added a few more which I have not thorouhly tested them. I can give my old fully working list and the added list if you want
they might be troublesome
0.0.0.0 a.fortumo.com
0.0.0.0 ad.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 adlog.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 ads.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 analytics.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 analytics.flurry-cdn.com
0.0.0.0 api.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 api.fortumo.com
0.0.0.0 app.igodigital.com
0.0.0.0 cdn.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 data.altbeacon.org
0.0.0.0 data.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 dev.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 e.crashlytics.com
0.0.0.0 get-avast.com
0.0.0.0 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 googletagmanager.com
0.0.0.0 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
0.0.0.0 pay.fortumo.com
0.0.0.0 proton.flurry.com
0.0.0.0 stage.app.igodigital.com
0.0.0.0 v7.stats.avast.com
0.0.0.0 v7event.stats.avast.com
0.0.0.0 wutlar.fortumo.com
0.0.0.0 mobile-campaigns.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ipm-provider.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 stats.avg.com
0.0.0.0 a.admob.com
0.0.0.0 analytics.admob.com
0.0.0.0 c.admob.com
0.0.0.0 media.admob.com
0.0.0.0 p.admob.com
0.0.0.0 trac.admob.com
0.0.0.0 r.l.admob.com

#newly added
0.0.0.0 ncc.avast.com
0.0.0.0 auth.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ip-info.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 analytics.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ping.avast.com
0.0.0.0 securebrowser.avast.tools.avcdn.net
0.0.0.0 ccleaner.tools.avcdn.net
0.0.0.0 gm.tools.avast.com
0.0.0.0 au.avastbrowser.com
cloud.PNGHM.PNG
 
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Pat MacKnife

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With latest AVG i haven't seen a single ad- popup in last 4 weeks , just to opt-out options in privacy settings, for me its the most important thing to have no ads.... blocking other stuff ( avastgui, overseer) with firewall rules i don't trust that either, because you don't know if you loose protection or not.
for avast its a different story ....
 

Evjl's Rain

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With latest AVG i haven't seen a single popup in last 4 weeks , just to opt-out options in privacy settings
for avast its a different story ....
AVG doesn't scare users as much as Avast but not necessarily more privacy-friendly (which I don't care about)
most of the ad domains I collected above came from AVG (ad.flurry, fortumo,...) and some more from avast (admob = google ad)

the only missing part from AVG is hardened mode aggressive => more powerful and less vulnerable than AVG's default moderate hardened mode
 
4

436880927

Is this list verified that it only blocks analytics and ads and doesn't interfere with avast!'s cloud functionality? Coz that's very important thing to be sure of.
There is no guarantee that it won't in the future. It is a dangerous hack to be applying if you want Avast to function properly at all times, irrespective of how long it has worked well for people so far.

Furthermore, Overseer is used to ensure that Avast components are working properly and report issues with them to Avast. Disabling it only reduces the stability of Avast services because issues that might be experienced internally might not be reported to Avast so they can fix them.
 

Evjl's Rain

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if people are worrying about blocking avast's functionalities, simply just delete all entries containing the word "avast", "avg" => this will reduce the effectiveness of blocking telemetry to avast but still keep the blocking of telemetry sent to third-parties (google, flurry, fortumo, crashlytics,...)
these probably won't affect avast's protection

Furthermore, Overseer is used to ensure that Avast components are working properly and report issues with them to Avast. Disabling it only reduces the stability of Avast services because issues that might be experienced internally might not be reported to Avast so they can fix them.
it's probably won't affect anything.
- Avast has enough users to collect data from
- Developers always ask users to use a separate tool from them to generate logs, dumps and error reports -> upload to their ftp. Overseer won't provide enough info
- 90% of bugs reported on Avast forum have a common fix and it almost always works. Contributors usually only have to copy and paste a preset of text and reply
- overseer is a bug report tool. It doesn't fix anything. Almost as useless as microsoft error reporting
- When I post a bug, nobody is able to answer, except the developers. Because the problems cannot be fixed by regular methods. The devs ignore free users frequently
 
4

436880927

it's probably won't affect anything.
Probably isn't a guarantee.

- overseer is a bug report tool. It doesn't fix anything.
Actually, Overseer does have the ability to fix issues. One of the main reasons it was created and implemented in the first place was to try and resolve problems which break protection but do not result in the user being aware that there is an issue going on. Overseer saves trouble for some.

@Milosh
 

Milosh

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Mar 26, 2019
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Probably isn't a guarantee.


Actually, Overseer does have the ability to fix issues. One of the main reasons it was created and implemented in the first place was to try and resolve problems which break protection but do not result in the user being aware that there is an issue going on. Overseer saves trouble for some.

@Milosh
Probably isn't a guarantee.


Actually, Overseer does have the ability to fix issues. One of the main reasons it was created and implemented in the first place was to try and resolve problems which break protection but do not result in the user being aware that there is an issue going on. Overseer saves trouble for some.

@Milosh
@Opcode That is correct. Its purpose is to fix Avast if the Avast service stops running - which basically means user not aware that he/she is not protectec and us (the company) having not much room to fix it or even know about it. After the heated debate some time ago we changed the Overseer functionality to uninstall itself when Avast AV is deliberately uninstalled by the user.
Hope it helps to clear the questions.
m
 

notabot

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Oct 31, 2018
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I have been using the list for a year at least. I have never seen any problem with it. Cloud, hardened mode and Behavior shield are stull fully functional

recently I added a few more which I have not thorouhly tested them. I can give my old fully working list and the added list if you want
they might be troublesome



Is telemetry significant even for their business products? eg Small Business Antivirus | Avast for Business
 
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topstuff

New Member
Jun 27, 2019
4
Is the hosts file up to date for new versions after they dumped jumpshot?
I did a wireshark run with the latest stable and found new hosts, as always is to know which are "good" and "bad"
0.0.0.0 ipm-provider.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 shepherd.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ncc.avast.com
0.0.0.0 auth.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ip-info.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 analytics.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 ping.avast.com
0.0.0.0 v7.stats.avast.com
0.0.0.0 v7event.stats.avast.com
0.0.0.0 myexternalip.com
0.0.0.0 www.avast.com
0.0.0.0 packet-responder.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 v1.ff.avast.com
0.0.0.0 submit.sb.avast.com
0.0.0.0 google.com
 
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Terry Ganzi

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

Balrog

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May 5, 2015
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I do not want to offend anyone. But I don't understand why use a product whose company is so in need of collecting user information, and which also usually leaves an overseer.exe process on each computer where it has been installed (also on some new ones). I understand that many others do but Avast seems pretty aggressive in that regard.
 

Evjl's Rain

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You could also go to
Settings->General->Personal Privacy an uncheck everything in that window.
@Evjl's Rain if this is done, is there anything that we don't need to do from your videos, so as to prevent overlap?
I don't get what you mean but I think I would do everything regardless of overlap to prevent telemetry as much as possible
 
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Gangelo

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Jul 29, 2017
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I do not want to offend anyone. But I don't understand why use a product whose company is so in need of collecting user information, and which also usually leaves an overseer.exe process on each computer where it has been installed (also on some new ones). I understand that many others do but Avast seems pretty aggressive in that regard.
This is happening because Avast / AVG give more weight to their free offerings, they are not exactly 'enterprise' solutions so they do not make money out of business solutions.
There is no such thing as a free meal. It is up to the user to decide if they want to give in some privacy in exchange for a 'free' AV.
 
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Tutman

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Apr 17, 2020
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Avast Defends Data Harvesting, Plans to Get Users to Agree to It
That is a year old article before they got rid of Jumpshot.
 

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