New version 25.7

[prokopes]

@New_Style_xd thanks for reporting. This Brazilian Portuguese issue will be fixed soon (I already noticed your previous report of this but did not acknowledge, sorry about that).

[New_Style_xd]

all right thank you again.

[Dinobot2]

When are you going to address the Chrome issue? The one that has been brought up for months?

[Rundvleeskroket]

ALERT

This version has a new checkbox under “Personal Privacy” that is enabled by default.
It allows all kinds of data to be sent to Avast.

The update screen only mentions ‘regular fixes’ but also new terms of service. That’s what made me suspicious. So I checked and indeed Avast is being scummy once again!

[dwh]

Appears to not be all that new; I’m still using 25.5 and checked…

[Rundvleeskroket]

I don’t remember seeing it in my 25.5. Not sure if I had 25.6. But now in 25.7 it is most definitely there.

[chris...]

Considering that I had version 25.5 at the end of May, the setting wasn’t there yet(June 5):

Avast suddenly updates other software without asking and without my consent

Oups, sorry … rather ”limited" if yesterday avast wanted me to buy antitrack and VPN secureLine, today 2 new notifications to buy Breach Guard and Driver Updater and this in spite of the fact that the notifications of the offers are always unchecked and that I am in limited mode… [unwanted notif] [not offers] [limited mode] I haven’t had the chance to use cleanup yet, but I’m sure avast will have it for me tomorrow. I do not appreciate at all that avast does…

Considering that I noticed it on July 24

Complaint regarding ads in PAID software

@DavidR I have already posted my configuration, which you have already read here. You can see that I have set premium not to receive offers (avast and third parties). However, in reality, for the past 3 or 4 months, avast has not been taking this into account as you can see in the screenshot The additional setting with the paid version is that you can avoid being notified of premium upgrades or offers for other avast products… which hasn’t been the case for months. Share your application u…

I would lean more towards it appearing with version 25.7 (July 22).

That said, I’m not at all certain that this kind of appearance is related to the program version update, but rather to the UI update… independent of the program version.

ps:Version 25.6 was released around June 20, I believe?

[DavidR]

That ‘new’ option is certainly there in Avast 25.5, I’m still using it also.

Interestingly it wasn’t there to start with when I took this image.

To the one taken today, so I don’t know when this Personalised discounts sneaked in.

[MrDJ]

Not seen this until mentioned here today so thanks for bringing to our attention.
Ive unticked now.

[DavidR]

Bad news having to check all of the settings to see what may have sneaked in under the radar.

[chris...]

@DavidR

That ‘new’ option is certainly there in Avast 25.5, I’m still using it also.

Interestingly it wasn’t there to start with when I took this image.

as I was saying:

That said, I’m not at all certain that this kind of appearance is related to the program version update, but rather to the UI update… independent of the program version.

Your two screenshots with the same version taken at two different times seem to prove this.

I assume that the change was made to one of the UI versions, which are independent of the program versions.

Currently, with version 25.7, my UI version is 1.0.844.

There is a good chance that you have the same UI version on 25.5.

[Rundvleeskroket]

Sneaking in new telemetry with an UI update is extra scummy. It means you’ll have to go through every setting every day just to avoid being a victim of this nonsense. Wholly unreasonable.

[DavidR]

I apologise for the confused state of this post, as it would appear I have had a program update and UI

I have the Program Updates set manual and VPS set to Auto Update, as there isn’t a specific UI update, I was under the impression that would come under the Program updates. I wonder if that can’t come down as part of the VPS or Emergency update/s (not that this could possibly be considered an emergency).

The UI Version in my stats below now reflect the current state.

This could be were there is a very slight discrepancy in what is in my settings when I check outside of a program update.

That said my current UI is 1.0.839 not 1.0.844 that you have and Program version 25.5.10141a (build 25.5.10141.762). Not what it was after my last program update - avast! free 25.5.10141a (build 25.5.10141.0).

So somewhere there was a program update outside of my settings for Manual Program Updates and a UI update.

[DavidR]

Just had another thought (dangerous I know), if there had been some form of bug fix in this period of time for both program and UI this would come outside of any regular Program/UI update.

Perhaps this has been the backdoor entry for the addition of the Personalised Discounts in the UI now. Not that this could be called a bug or emergency program update.

[NON]

Just a wild guess, a boundary of program, UI and VPS are now almost gone, meaning many changes/fixes can now be distributed on the fly, without periodic “Program Update”, that is the reason of recent absence of release notes. Only major changes need “program updates”.
Consider about streaming updates and VPS updates; VPS updates are kind of a cumulation of streaming updates. Same thing can be done for programs, don’t you think?

[chris...]

At the same time, if you look closely (by reading the fine print), avast does indicate this type of change, because with each program update there is always a new redirect to the privacy policy.

Each time there must be a (small) change.

General Privacy Policy

I just opened them and without reading everything, you can see it.

Your Choices in products

You can make certain choices about how your data is used by us by adjusting the privacy settings of the relevant product. Please check your product settings to set your privacy preferences there.

Of course, it would be better for us to be notified specifically about this kind of change, but avast (like all vendors) seems to have done its job.

edit:
However, I just got an ad pop-up (don’t miss out on your avast discount…) in the right corner of my taskbar, even though the box is unchecked… weird, just when I’m on this topic and on the privacy policy page.
I wanted to take a screenshot, but it just shows a black square without the ad that appears on my desktop.

[DavidR]

Thanks for that, I’m still on 25.5 and when I do a manual program update I do get this in the changes and do read the what’s included in the Update Notes. I don’t recall the Consult your Personal Privacy settings.

This may well have been in the update to 25.6 notes, but not having 25.6, I didn’t see this. Yet the subsequent backdoor update didn’t trigger this ‘Consult your Personal Privacy settings’ in a regular program update.

[NON]

@chris...

I wanted to take a screenshot, but it just shows a black square without the ad that appears on my desktop.

It must be this settings. IIRC this option was implemented to prevent unintentional disclosure of user’s IP or places when the user is on web-meeting or live streaming.

[igor0]

Thank you for raising this point. To clarify: this new setting does not grant us permission to collect any additional data beyond what is already collected. Instead, It simply allows us to use that existing data to personalize the discounts included in the offers we present to you. When turned off only non-personalized discounts will be available to you.

[DavidR]

A bit of a catch 22, get cr4p ads or personalised ads.

So, paid users essentially can’t opt out of Ads, as an Avast Free user this is the cost of free. But it must suck for those who have paid.