I’ve come across few instances of Android apps that were bundled with Airpush or other garbage ads crap and avast! never ever notified me of anything. DrWeb Light however did and still does. Why is this not being covered by avast! PUP’s? I hate stupid ads that constantly consume my 3G data and display crap in my notification bar. I REALLY hate that. Ads in app itself are ok but notification bar is something i just can’t and won’t allow.
Hi,
our viruslab doesn’t consider those as PUPs, sorry.
Filip
Because ads are in like 80% of all apps. It’s the way Google actually encourages to run the ecosystem - make apps essentially free and make some money on ad impressions.
Erm, no. Out of 90 apps that i use, 2 were flagged as “not-a-virus Airpush something” by DrWeb because they contained that notification ads garbage (and they actually did, not some false positive). So i just can’t agree with your statements. One thing are tiny ad banners that display inside most apps when you use them and another thing are these god awful notification ads that pretty much everyone “forget to mention” on GooglePlay in the description of the app…
I’m also not sure since when Airpush garbage isn’t considered as PUP. It is unwanted by me and i’m most certainly not the only one who thinks like this. I guess i’ll have to use DrWeb then if you don’t plan to do anything about this.
I totally agree. Anything that installs itself in the notification area without my permission is EVIL.
Also suggested, discussed, dismissed:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=103243
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=105616
My solution - run both,
- DrWeb - has good logs, selective scanning, tells about Airpush (see pics in 103243 thread), BUT can’t control which apps can go out to the wild web.
- Avast - has no logs, can’t scan selected areas, is silent on AirPush, BUT has an application firewall.
Best of both worlds. No conflicts, no excessive battery drain.
Firewall is no use to me this time since i don’t have a rooted phone this time around.
You’ll never have a rooted phone anytime around, UNLESS you root it. It’s entirely up to you whether you root it or not.
However, if you want to get rid of all those annoying ads…
1. Root your phone
2. Use Ad Blockers
3. Use Avast Firewall
There is no other way around this annoyance. When ads are served, you’ll either get them or…1,2,3
Or i can just use DrWeb and not use apps that use the damn notification ads…
RejZoR, it’s been an open issue for several months now with no specific answer.
I think its a poor decision not to detect this stuff as PUP. There aren’t as many of such apps as Vlk says, but those that are are triple annoying. And avast! doesn’t even bother to notify me about them. What’s the point of PUP then!? It’s not like you actually have anything else to detect as PUP on android…
DrWeb only notifies you, but you can still use the app no problem, because it’s not really a malware. But it at least notifies you, so you know that you’ll get all the shite in the notification bar. And because i was interested to see how the app looks i ran it anyway. And seconds later i got a notification that “You won an iPad 4”. Seriously, is this kind of crap something you want to support? And the app wasn’t even what it was claiming to be. It wasn’t a live walpaper, it was just a static image loaded with all the possible ads. Really great “ecosystem” as Vlk calls it.
Clean actual malware all you want, but at least notifying users about apps that are bundled with this crap, would make every possible sense you can think of. Just do the same as DrWeb does and all will be well for everyone.
Rejzor,
Comodo Mobile Security also has push ads detections. Did you try it? How it works?
I don’t like its icon and its detection is otherwise rather poor overall.
I find its detection at par with other top. Icon is personal preference.
RejZoR,
AVL, Dr Web light or trustgo
the three are very good till avast decide -if they did- to add it to db…
To Alwil,
Google is not an excuse. AVG, Trust Go, AVL and many other -FREE- products are adding these to the db. Please respect your clients otherwise you are really ruining your business guys.
If they’d do like DrWeb does i’d be perfectly happy. Notify user but let the app run and not auto quarantine/delete it. This way user can decide if he wants this sort of app or not. I personally never ever liked any of the apps that include this push crap. One thing are sort of relevent ads but getting nonsense like “You won iPhone 5” friggin gazillion times a day when you clearly know no one will ever be giving me 100x iPhone 5’s a day, i just get that allergy to this sort of BS ads.
And like i said, based on Vlk’s comment you’d think 99% of apps use push junk. But they don’t. 95% use regular tiny banner ads inside app or no ads at all. The other 5% are maybe using this pushing junk. So how can it be such a problem notifying user about it? My 3G bandwidth is not free and i don’t want to get it wasted on such garbage.
Why not satisfy both sides and add “Push Ads detection” below the “PUP detection” option in settings (which would be disabled by default)?
This way casual users won’t be affected but those of us who hate push ads will love it. I mean yu know that i like avast! but because of this i have to run DrWeb alongside avast!. Or without avast! which isn’t exactly a prefered way…
Any comment on the above idea?
RejZoR, , well said, I’m with your idea 100%. But I don’t count 
and in spite of several threads begging for this, Avast! team just doesn’t want to do it. I wonder WHY.
It beats me as well. It’s not i’m asking to block ads only and keep on using the app. I DON’T want to even use an app that features air push ads. So, detecting it in the first place is a requirement. So if i’m not using it because i refuse to do so, no harm is done because i’m not “cheating” so to speak. Like i said, i don’t mind ad banners inside apps because they are in my sight only when i use the app. I don’t want some retarded app shitting over my phone with absolutelly no relation to the app itself. I’m sure there are ppl who don’t mind it and those simply won’t enable detection in the settings (which would be disabled by default anyway).
So this is what Avast folks want us to accept, and for people with timed access, pay for
http://phandroid.com/2011/04/30/airpush-sends-ads-to-your-notification-pane-and-why-i-think-its-horrible/
http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/18232/is-this-red-star-icon-malware-how-to-get-rid-of-it
http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/12/12/lawsuit-claims-airpush-ads-responsible-for-shady-premium-rate-charges/
Very SAD.