Is it safe to use 360 TS or or other 360's products?

[maanastr]

Actuly I am going post a very old topic about 360 TS.But,Yesterday I read Petrovik's article regarding with Free av. Petrovik focused on serious aspects of these free av's. So what about QIhoo security products? are they reaaly safe. I am trying 360 ts since last 6 to 7 months.

One thing is important,If other well known brand taking money for protection and trying to improve protection level then why Qihoo giving there products with quality in free of cost? How can one give quality product without getting revenue? experts comment needed on it.

 

[ismethere]

This is my experience.. 360 TS delete My Deep Freeze files Persi0.sys on Wins Xp SP3
That's why nowadays I stop to using it.
[Actually 360 TS qihoo is really good AV especially if installed on Windows Xp to get Security Updates]​

 

[aztony]

Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. whose free antivirus software has captured more than 80 percent of the market -- estimated at about 1.5 billion people -- is being accused of stealing confidential information from hundreds of millions of users.

Qihoo is facing numerous allegations of improper data collection and exploiting those who use its apps, such as its 360 Browser for Windows or its antivirus software. Qihoo has been facing problems recently as a respected Chinese magazine called them the “cancer of the internet” and Apple banned all of the company iOS apps.

Chinese antivirus firm Qihoo 360 Technology today was censured by three major testing organizations for cheating on the evaluations.

Based on a well publicized history of unflattering/troubling allegations and censorship, you be the judge as to whether this is a company worthy of anyone's trust.

 

[hjlbx]

Good grief... this topic again.

Don't use Qihoo products on principle... as far as I am concerned it is a data miner. I rate Qihoo the same as Google and Microsoft - which I hold both in very low regard when it comes to certain matters.

 

[WinXPert]

This is my experience.. 360 TS delete My Deep Freeze files Persi0.sys on Wins Xp SP3
That's why nowadays I stop to using it.
[Actually 360 TS qihoo is really good AV especially if installed on Windows Xp to get Security Updates]​

never had that problem with DF and 360TS.

I still use Qihoo because it works for me. Almost all PCs here at the shop uses 360TS

 

[OokamiCreed]

I have found no evidence of it being unsafe. I have used it before for maybe 2 weeks at most? They do however have shady tactics and might, or might not care about your privacy. It is a great AV though in terms of protection. Well if you turn on Bitdefender and Avira engines. Pretty heavy on RAM (over 200MB) which for me isn't heavy but compared to the average, it is. Seems to detect everything it doesn't know with it's heuristics which is pretty dumb so I give it no points in heuristics. (I'm pretty sure it's using heuristics for one of it's engines. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

Even with all that said, I voted for not safe. I have my reasons but will not discuss them. The internet is too hostile of a place for opinion and preference.

I rate Qihoo the same as Google and Microsoft - which I hold both in very low regard when it comes to certain matters.

I agree with it comparing to Google but Microsoft? Certainly not. I would call them greedy though. But really of this is a touchy topic that will differ extremely from person to person. Not something I want to debate about. In fact I despise debating and refuse to engage in it. I would also include Baidu in this. Maybe even Apple but I've never personally used anything from them.

 

[jamescv7]

We need to clarify all on these issues:

1) The company itself is a legitimate security sector for IT but privacy issues are always a normal problem where it must be your choice if you want to install or not; reading there privacy policy gives you an idea.

2) Allegations and controversy has happened last 2-3 months about the optimization test which design for independent test only but other hand still no reports which makes the AV products dangerous to use.

3) Those bundled software from AV installations is always a normal because of advertising mechanism, therefore you have the right to exclude them.

4) Qihoo's revenue isn't a problem, they have so many partners from their advertising. Even I've watched CNBC Business Show before, Qihoo is known to be an X-Factor player in the market.

5) The AV program is safe, you have multi engine based including their in-house Cloud/Signature. The thing happens are FP''s rate.

Its not bad to make a background research of their company so you may or not use then everything is fine.

 

[Venustus]

I wouldn't touch it with a "ten foot pole"!

 

[Kate_L]

Yes they are safe
The only downside it's FPs, beside that it is an amazing product.

 

[Sr. Normal]

It is good? sure
It is safe? sure
It is ethical? I have doubts

The problem, for me, is that Qihoo occasionally comes involved in a new controversy. I've been using it for years and recently uninstalled it after what happened with the tests. I love this AV, but I do not know if I will use it again

 

[kiric96]

Surely it is safe to use, the only downside is the FPs it produces, but besides that no problem. In regards of privacy issues, i can tell you that if you use a free product they have to get a revenue and guess what? that revenue is you, the user... nothing in this life is free, however i dont see a big issue if they have holes in their privacy police i dont work for NASA or the goverment so i dont really think that they will get some money from my personal info... if you are scared by this then dont use internet and you will stay safe.

 

[jackuars]

Is it worth it? Yes , it's free and probably the best in it's league. All those claims about cheating? Check our malware testers reviews, it's nothing short of excellent.

Is it safe? Yes it's an antivirus not malware. Just one of the very few free antiviruses that doesn't include adware/junk-ware.

Jeez 11 votes for 'Not safe or worth it'. Seriously!

 

[Ink]

Of course the program is Safe. VirusTotal shows no signs of malicious files.

Whether it's trustworthy to your security and privacy is a different matter, personal or proven.

 

[Surtur]

One thing is important,If other well known brand taking money for protection and trying to improve protection level then why Qihoo giving there products with quality in free of cost? How can one give quality product without getting revenue?

There is no free AV. Because you are paying for it with your personal data.The more information the companies have over the individual user, the more valuable this is.

 

[rodneyo]

Chinese people here in America = cool
Chinese people in China = whole different mind set...I don't trust them. So no I would not use their software.

 

[SkyJP]

It does its job rather wall as a security program. But, as it is with most if not all free antiviruses, they have to make money one way or another, especially if they don't offer any paid solutions, which usually causes an invasion of privacy for the user.

Even though they did cheat in recent tests, it's certainly bound to create some sort of mistrust nonetheless, regardless of whether their results could have been the best or horrible, the fact that they lied would easily doubt the trust you'd be giving to a company to protect your own computer.

 

[jackuars]

There is no free AV. Because you are paying for it with your personal data.The more information the companies have over the individual user, the more valuable this is.

Question: I thought every software has their own privacy policies. What do you make of the privacy policies of the commercial antivirus suite Kaspersky (privacy) versus the privacy policies of freeware antivirus Qihoo (privacy). Both of them (and all) collects personal data but the data is stored in specially protected servers and access restricted to only authorized people.

The market in China is big because of it's huge population. The traffic it generates through it's antivirus, search engines and browser is good enough to bring in cash much more than the commercial antivirus suites. Moreover Qihoo's products has been expanding even to India and I already know that many of my friends use it. So there you go, the 2 most populous nations in the world!

If you have doubts check the number of installs for Kaspersky (<=50 million) vs Qihoo (<=500million) for their respective android application.

 

[LabZero]

It is a safe product, with a good level of protection and it is free.

Personally i don't like Qihoo software but this is a personal opinion.

Yes collects data: IP, PC technical data (it must be said that this they do all AV for statistical reasons, they say).
But as early as 2011, Kingsoft had accused Qihoo 360 to have collected records on millions of users in a severe invasion of privacy: browsing and download histories.
Data that could be used to identify specific users.

Now I don't know if things have changed but ...

 

[Surtur]

What do you make of the privacy policies of the commercial antivirus suite Kaspersky (privacy) versus the privacy policies of freeware antivirus Qihoo (privacy). Both of them (and all) collects personal data but the data is stored in specially protected servers and access restricted to only authorized people.

But there is a difference between Kaspersky and Qihoo. Kaspersky has proven that they can deal with personal data. And Qihoo, I have doubts because Qihoo is an X-Factor player in the market. There are just too many questions unanswered about Qihoo and these open questions leave too much room for speculations. Anyway, for me no AV from China because I don't trust them. This is my honest opinion and each user must decide whether the company is trustfully or not.

 

[Rolo]

"Qihoo is an X-Factor player in the market"​

What does that even mean?


If you want to avoid any company that got dinged for how it used personal information, you'd have to leave your computer off, close all of your money and credit accounts, change your name and address.

"Personal" information is often misconstrued from personally "identifiable" information (PII) to analytics. PII, I care. Analytics, I don't--of course they're capturing your habits..that information has value and if that gets me free stuff, I'm fine with it. I use Google, Chrome, Android...of course I'm being analyticsysed...but I mitigate that with blockers anyway and for performance, not anonymity. I don't care if they know user#867-5309 browsed these sites, runs these programs, etc. Big Data = Big Brother.

The part that matters: Qihoo was acing the AV tests until the he said/she said pettiness. Anyone who actually reads AV tests isn't going to use the default configuration anyway!

My little scanning test today has Qihoo on top, besting Avast (whom I was rooting for) and Comodo. I've switched my desktop and laptop to Win10 (10130) and I'm evaluating available free security solutions.

Thanks to @SkyboundSteven for providing collections easy to download; I used:
mega.co.nz/#!M1g1jJIR!6FYbSSFUFF99Qythxq7V3U-dqTaO-g0GA_WzfmTwD6w
and
https://mega.co.nz/#F!hogT2RBZ!sKoVvGkAOkhiNrYI7OXuGw
on a Hyper-V VM running the same Win10 (10130). I also have Malwarebytes Antimalware Premium and Zemana (lifetime) installed. The tested software was downloaded/installed/updated today.

I extracted all 922 files and de-duplicated them (leaving 698 files), installed the software to be tested, set options to their maximum, disabled real-time protection, then performed a scan on the malware folder with a right-click and selected delete on all positives. Next I ran MBAM then ran a Zemana scan to see what the other engines combined found to pretty much get the maximum detectable (most weren't detected; I'm not sure if every single file is malicious or if some are legitimate files that are part of a malicious package) to get what would have been left had I run the tested product with MBAM.

Results
Avira: not compatible with Win10; permissions issues
Baidu: not compatible with Win10; it didn't detect anything, not even EICAR
Panda: not compatible with Win10; Microsoft blocks it

One could argue that "Win10 isn't released yet" but I disagree: Anyone can download and install it from Microsoft; therefore it is released and nomenclature ("preview", "beta", "early" means nothing as it pertains to release, only to stability/expectations). If a security company isn't on the ball with OS software, I have to wonder if they're on the ball with the even more rapidly-changing malicious software--so credit to Avast, Comodo, Qihoo for that and I'll be choosing one of these for my file scanner solution.

Avast removed 119 threats, then MBAM removed 15 items, leaving Zemana to find 29 items
Comodo removed 111 threats, then MBAM removed 20 items, leaving Zemana to find 32 items
Qihoo removed 170 threats, then MBAM found 1 item, leaving Zemana to find 4 items

As far as file-detection goes, one could say not running Qihoo 360 isn't safe.