Did Avast just pull a fast one?

system · 2017-11-04T23:14:19.000Z

So I just noticed that spontaneously my computer’s time/date changed. Okay, not sure how it happened, but I googled a fix and set it straight again. Immediately after I save changes Avast pops up with an advertisement saying something along the lines of “Software trouble? Ask how we can help” and the image on the toast window advertisement is A CLOCK.

I have used this product for well over five years, and I’ve not got a single thing wrong with the program offering other things or showing toast windows for services I don’t have (shameless self promotion, no big deal, it doesn’t bother me), but I’m gonna lay it just as bluntly as I took it. I’m led to believe the program somehow intentionally changed my date/time so it could then immediately afterward suggest a paid service. That is exactly what it looked like. I hope this isn’t the case. I changed my date/time settings again intentionally after this occurred to see if I could make the pop-up reoccur but it didn’t show after manually changing the date a few more times. Perhaps I’ve made this thread just to see if others have seen the same thing happen, or to be convinced it was just a massive coincidence.

Edit: For a little more clarification this happened around 5:30pm on Saturday Nov 4th. It changed from that to Sun Nov 5th, 4:30pm. That’s a change of +23 hours and occurred before the DST swap.

DavidR · 2017-11-05T01:10:41.000Z

The free version does offer other avast paid avast products/services. There is an option if you already have avast Pro, Internet Security, etc. to disable that, but you don’t say what avast version you are using.

Me I have been using avast free for over 13 years, I don’t like some of these overly aggressive toaster ads, but for the most part I just ignore them, trying to keep my blood pressure under control.

system · 2017-11-05T15:28:33.000Z

The point of making the thread was this line here:
“I’m led to believe the program somehow intentionally changed my date/time so it could then immediately afterward suggest a paid service.”
Not because I saw an ad. The ads don’t bother me, it’s the fact that I was led to believe that the program altered my computer for its marketing strategy.

Pondus · 2017-11-05T15:33:39.000Z

So I just noticed that spontaneously my computer's time/date changed.

How much? was it one hour + / ÷

Could it be related to Daylight Saving Time Ended ?

DavidR · 2017-11-05T15:48:07.000Z

jenko_2006 post:3:

The point of making the thread was this line here:
“I’m led to believe the program somehow intentionally changed my date/time so it could then immediately afterward suggest a paid service.”
Not because I saw an ad. The ads don’t bother me, it’s the fact that I was led to believe that the program altered my computer for its marketing strategy.

Well I have been using the avast free version for almost 14 years and that has never happened to me.

What led you to assume that ?

bob3160 · 2017-11-05T22:33:25.000Z

Just an observation. Since changing the system clock is often used to bypass time limitations,
it’s quite possible that Avast was checking to make sure you were aware of the changing time.
Your AV monitors everything that happens on your computer. That’s it’s job.

system · 2017-11-06T02:01:30.000Z

@ Bob: If that’s the case then no harm, no foul. It’s doing its job and it was just a coincidence, and that’s what I’m hoping it was.

@ Pondus: This happened at roughly 5:30pm on Saturday Nov 4th, it went from that time to Sun Nov 5th, 4:30pm. It changed itself by +23 hours. It occurred long before DST swapped over, and at a very incorrect interval, haha. I’ll add that to first post to clarify.

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