Serious Discussion Quick Play with McAfee

[vonvon]

Just FYI, I noticed that McAfee was blocking some of Windhawk's mods injections. No big deal, but good to know.

 

[nickstar1]

McAfee always seems to cause surprises with new releases. I downloaded the update today and noticed the icons had changed, so I expected the GUI to be different, but it's still the same old McAfee, just with updated icons. they are trolling lol.

 

[nickstar1]

I’m uninstalling McAfee. The web protection has gone downhill so badly that I’m honestly not sure what the development team has been focusing on lately protecting users or figuring out new ways to bombard them with advertisements, pop-ups, and endless annoyances. It’s pretty disappointing, because McAfee was actually a decent product when it first transitioned into a cloud-based service. Then apparently someone had the brilliant idea: “Wait, we have a plan let’s spam the people who already use and pay for our product.”

And it shows. The actual web protection has taken a noticeable back seat to all the noise. What used to feel like a security product now feels like an advertising platform that happens to have antivirus features attached. I tested it again expecting to see some improvement, but wow, what a difference from the last time I used it. Unfortunately, not the kind of difference you want to see. At this point, uninstalling it feels like the better security decision not because I’m worried about malware, but because I’d like my computer to be protected without McAfee constantly trying to sell me something.

I’m so sick of every damn product demanding an email address just to use something I already paid for. Apparently, companies can’t just sell you a product anymore they also need to collect your information, create an account, and make sure they can shove notifications, marketing, and whatever else they feel like sending at you.
At some point, we need to start pushing back on this ridiculous practice. Not every toaster, app, gadget, or piece of software needs to know who I am, where I live, or what email address to spam. Maybe companies should try selling products instead of turning every purchase into an excuse to harvest customer data.
So yeah, enough is enough. If your product requires an email just to function, maybe the answer should simply be: eat it!!!

 

[Sorrento]

For myself I moved from McAfee to ESET which does require a email etc but I get zero hassle from them after trying it out I bought a three year license at a good price, IMHO it was a good idea, McAfee is on a few PC's I look after friends & relatives, ESET for me is fit & forget & I really like the GUI, over the years I've used ESET more than anything & NOD32 for years.

 

[Miraculix]

I’m uninstalling McAfee. The web protection has gone downhill so badly that I’m honestly not sure what the development team has been focusing on lately protecting users or figuring out new ways to bombard them with advertisements, pop-ups, and endless annoyances. It’s pretty disappointing, because McAfee was actually a decent product when it first transitioned into a cloud-based service. Then apparently someone had the brilliant idea: “Wait, we have a plan let’s spam the people who already use and pay for our product.”

And it shows. The actual web protection has taken a noticeable back seat to all the noise. What used to feel like a security product now feels like an advertising platform that happens to have antivirus features attached. I tested it again expecting to see some improvement, but wow, what a difference from the last time I used it. Unfortunately, not the kind of difference you want to see. At this point, uninstalling it feels like the better security decision not because I’m worried about malware, but because I’d like my computer to be protected without McAfee constantly trying to sell me something.

I’m so sick of every damn product demanding an email address just to use something I already paid for. Apparently, companies can’t just sell you a product anymore they also need to collect your information, create an account, and make sure they can shove notifications, marketing, and whatever else they feel like sending at you.
At some point, we need to start pushing back on this ridiculous practice. Not every toaster, app, gadget, or piece of software needs to know who I am, where I live, or what email address to spam. Maybe companies should try selling products instead of turning every purchase into an excuse to harvest customer data.
So yeah, enough is enough. If your product requires an email just to function, maybe the answer should simply be: eat it!!!

I fully agree with you regarding those annoying upgrade prompts. But what is your view based on—that the protection has become less reliable? Have you conducted any tests? The results from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives still give McAfee a top-notch rating.

 

[nickstar1]

I fully agree with you regarding those annoying upgrade prompts. But what is your view based on—that the protection has become less reliable? Have you conducted any tests? The results from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives still give McAfee a top-notch rating.

Fraudulent emails or URLs that are not detected on URLhaus are all I need to see. actually, did pretty poor. Prior to this little observation, I had McAfee installed for over a year and conducted the same tests. During that entire time, it never had a problem flagging any of the URLs that were listed in URLhaus. That’s simply unacceptable. Its phishing detection also seemed to take a hit. Overall, the detection appears to be less strict now almost as if it has been “dumbed down.”

 

[nickstar1]

Of course, as soon as I type this, McAfee releases a new version of McAfee WebAdvisor. Now I have to run all the tests again to make sure the results weren’t just a hiccup or an issue on their server side