Serious Discussion Pissed with Malwarebytes and its advertisements in premium products.

[nickstar1]

I believe its unacceptable for a paid product to look like "Freeware" recently Malwarebytes has added it's VPN into it's premium products for premium subscriptions. This advertisement displays every time you open the UI which looks very unprofessional!!!! Recently they also added it's new identity protection into it's premium products furtherly adding bloat and unnecessary communications into its UI. This is very unacceptable for a company like Malwarebytes who i thought was above all of these shady practices. I have stood by Malwarebytes for a very long time but this is just plain unacceptable! They promised users a way to hide the VPN being displayed in it's products but no updates have made that possible. What do MalwareTips users think? Is what they are doing unacceptable for a paid product?

 

[Bot]

I understand your frustration. It can be disappointing when a trusted product changes in ways we don't like. While these new features are intended to enhance security, I agree that the option to hide them should be available for those who don't need them. Let's hope Malwarebytes takes user feedback into account for future updates.

 

[Brahman]

I believe its unacceptable for a paid product to look like "Freeware" recently Malwarebytes has added it's VPN into it's premium products for premium subscriptions. This advertisement displays every time you open the UI which looks very unprofessional!!!! Recently they also added it's new identity protection into it's premium products furtherly adding bloat and unnecessary communications into its UI. This is very unacceptable for a company like Malwarebytes who i thought was above all of these shady practices. I have stood by Malwarebytes for a very long time but this is just plain unacceptable! They promised users a way to hide the VPN being displayed in it's products but no updates have made that possible. What do MalwareTips users think? Is what they are doing unacceptable for a paid product?




View attachment 284435View attachment 284436

It's an open market, you have choices and there are better products. Let them know what you feel about such product upsell advertisements on paid/subscription products.

 

[brambedkar59]

Personally, I don't like when VPN is a part of the main AV app. It should be a separate app by itself and there should be no adverts inside a paid app.

Is that you @nickstar1 ?

Build version 5.1.7.121 component package 1.0.1289

Thanks for the update but, STOP with the In-App advertising within the paid version. It starts to look like a free version.

forums.malwarebytes.com

 

[SpiderWeb]

I'm glad someone said it. The redesign was a major reason why I went with Bitdefender. If I'm paying, I should feel like my protection is adequate, not be bombarded with upsell nonsense. I don't understand why they redesigned something that was easy to understand into this eyesore. Last year's was just fine:

 

[TuxTalk]

I'm glad someone said it. The redesign was a major reason why I went with Bitdefender. If I'm paying, I should feel like my protection is adequate, not be bombarded with upsell nonsense. I don't understand why they redesigned something that was easy to understand into this eyesore. Last year's was just fine:

View attachment 284439

Bitdefender also keep trying to Push their VPN thru your throat.
Have to admit their vpn not bad. Just some locations are not the right ones. Just by name in the App, the real location somewhere else.

 

[JasonUK]

Malwarebytes deserve a round of applause in my honest view.. I bought a lifetime licence back in 2012 and they're still honouring that over a decade and several major update versions (v3-v4-v5) later. The new dashboard isn't as clean as the old, the software has a few extras & premium+ features at extra cost that new & existing customers will weigh against the competition but at least they've stood by their customers.

I only use the product as a secondary scanner so extras of no interest personally but I can live with the rest

 

[I Walk MY Way]

Unacceptable full stop. I wont use Malwarebytes now.

 

[Jonny Quest]

Bitdefender also keep trying to Push their VPN thru your throat.
Have to admit their vpn not bad. Just some locations are not the right ones. Just by name in the App, the real location somewhere else.

Agree, but they "all" seem to be doing it, with the caveat, the reasoning being that they're looking out for us, and our online protection. Maybe, but it also comes down to another product to sell, another revenue stream for them.

 

[lyldz]

Unfortunately, all known security software is gradually confining the user to an interface that they might never actually use..
I am a lifetime license user. When I asked about the VPN integration at first, and inquired what would happen to lifetime license users, they wrote something like 'VPN will no longer be optional.' It's now mandatory. Oh, how wonderful.

 

[Morro]

Agree, but they "all" seem to be doing it, with the caveat, the reasoning being that they're looking out for us, and our online protection. Maybe, but it also comes done to another product to sell, another revenue stream for them.

I have never understood that with BDTS, I pay close to 90 euros, and then they give you a 200mb a day VPN!? And if you want unlimited VPN you need to buy the premium package for about 30 euros or more! 200mb a day is non-existent, it would be better in my opinion to simple remove the VPN in BDTS, and make a higher tier for Bitdefender suite. A suite that has the full unlimited VPN in it as well, that way they do not have to place an add for it in BDTS. Although they probably still would, they hold on to things, extremely slow to change things. (If at all.)

 

[Moonhorse]

their interface seems to get worse by every update it seems. No point having ads in paid product and exclude that vpn to different app instead of having it build on product itself

I havent used malwarebytes really ever anyways, only the anti-exploit beta i have used in past.

I have never understood that with BDTS, I pay close to 90 euros

you can get BDTS for half of that price from serialcart, or like 5 eur / year from G2G

 

[Morro]

their interface seems to get worse by every update it seems. No point having ads in paid product and exclude that vpn to different app instead of having it build on product itself

I havent used malwarebytes really ever anyways, only the anti-exploit beta i have used in past.


you can get BDTS for half of that price from serialcart, or like 5 eur / year from G2G

I know, but I had BDTS a whole lot cheaper the first year already, that is how they got me. And now I renewed because my wife likes to use it, but any way thanks for the tip. I will check out serialcart next time I need to renew it for my wife.

 

[lokamoka820]

Malwarebytes was a must-have app for me in the past, but I won't use it anymore, I don't like a lot of what it does recently.

 

[Trident]

I think calling the practice shady and unacceptable is a bit farfetched.

I do not support and I repeat, I do not support the main UI of applications being turned into eBay market, upselling, cross selling and heavily pushing other products. And when these other products are tuneup and various snake oil, I go mad.

But then again, Malwarebytes operates in a highly competitive field that is heavily dominated by a few behemoths. So if they want to “raise awareness” and increase their revenue stream, and they see that as a viable way, I understand that.
The overall protection score has remained “100%” so it’s not like Malwarebytes is trying to scare you into purchasing VPN.

Users are supposed to take a decision whether they really need this “stuff”.

 

[Captain Holly]

I have a lifetime MBAM license too, I am glad they still honor it after all this time. I use it with MS Security/Defender on my Windows laptop. I do see the VPN offer in the GUI but that does not bother me. I don't need a VPN so I just leave it turned off. I don't see the Identity Protection offer in the GUI either. I think the Identity Protection must not be part of the version I got with the lifetime license. I am on v. 5.1.6.117 with the Web Protection, Malware and PUP Protection, Ransomware and Exploit Protection modules active.

The only odd thing I have seen with MBAM is every so often when I boot up my laptop MBAM does not start, and does not show the icon in the task bar like it should. It will start from the desktop shortcut. I think it may do that that when it is updating. I am not real worried about that either. The Lifetime License MBAM must be somewhat different from the actual paid annual subscription but the protection aspects of MBAM are working OK here so I will keep using it.

C.H.

 

[ForgottenSeer 114834]

I have to agree with the OP on this as these tactics such as have taken place for years. I remember when Norton would use scare tactics at the end of the subscription, big warnings flashing that if you did not resubscribe your subscription soon you would be hacked basically. Many users that were not tech savvy were put off by this as well back then. The last thing users want is things flashing in their faces especially from products they have paid for. Most companies make you put forward an email, and there is no reason they can not push these type things through a friendly email. Its understandable they need to continue to profit as a business and may have other products they want users to be aware of, its just how they are presenting it that is putting off users.

Basically the PR departments need to find another way to advertise without pestering their paying user base.

 

[SpiderWeb]

I think calling the practice shady and unacceptable is a bit farfetched.

I do not support and I repeat, I do not support the main UI of applications being turned into eBay market, upselling, cross selling and heavily pushing other products. And when these other products are tuneup and various snake oil, I go mad.

But then again, Malwarebytes operates in a highly competitive field that is heavily dominated by a few behemoths. So if they want to “raise awareness” and increase their revenue stream, and they see that as a viable way, I understand that.
The overall protection score has remained “100%” so it’s not like Malwarebytes is trying to scare you into purchasing VPN.

Users are supposed to take a decision whether they really need this “stuff”.

Not yet. But, they might copy others like Norton 360 or Bitdefender mobile soon. They will use scare tactics saying you're not secure because you don't use their "wonderful" VPN/DNS. They're marketing using their services as essential to protection without an option to disable the message or say that you already use another security solution. Just like the built-in "cleaners" these solutions are not always safer and in most cases even worse. In Bitdefender case they are branding it "Web Protection". It's extremely annoying. If a company marks my system as not secure because I decide to disable HTTPS scanning or don't want my DNS to be logged by some company with no clear privacy policy on VPN/DNS log retention, I can't take you seriously as a security company. That's just data collection and they are using fear mongering as a revenue stream.

 

[oldschool]

Easy solution: Windows Defender. Word.

 

[omidomi]

Um...I see many companies try to advertised those bloatware's
users must pay more attention to buy these bla bla....