AVG Antivirus Free - was one of the free products I disliked the most.You're not fooling anyone guys we see that your feature is redirecting the search results through a rebranded version of the Ask search engine. Avira Free Antivirus - does the absolute same thing and tries to install a version of the Ask Toolbar, but this time renames it as "Avira SafeSearch Plus".Additionally, it will attempt to change your homepage and default search engine to its own "ZoneAlarm Search". ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall - as previously mentioned, this product will try to install what it calls the "ZoneAlarm Toolbar" on your PC, which is actually a renamed version of the Ask Toolbar.It offers to install stuff like Dropbox or Google Toolbar which many people actually want, so I can't call them crapware. Avast! Free - has done some questionable things in the past like inserting its browser extension into your online shopping, but now it's actually pretty clean.What you see is what you get, and even though it may be inconvenient, there's nothing actually risky for your PC. It offers to change your default search engine to Yahoo, your homepage to "My Start" (powered by Yahoo) and install its own security toolbar, but at least it doesn't use rebranding as a marketing tool. Panda Free Antivirus - is one of the more honest free products.However, excepting the fact that the name is a lie (the feature actually uses a version of the Yahoo search, so it has nothing to do with safety), there's nothing actually harmful about that. It simply changes your home page and default search engine to something the company brands "SecureSearch". Ad-Aware Free - this is one of the less noxious free antivirus suits.Here are some examples from the most popular free antivirus products: Firstly, I love free stuff (who doesn't?) and secondly, there's actually a lot of concrete evidence to support my claims. I know it sounds like I'm an alarmist who hates free stuff, but, unfortunately, that's not case. However, since most software and websites already do that, it's not something to be actually angry about. Last, but not least, security companies that develop free antivirus products also make money by tracking your browsing habits and then selling that theoretically private data to various companies. Additionally, almost every free antivirus will want to change your homepage, so that they can make some money by diverting your Internet traffic. Why is this so bad? Because is slows down your web browsing, and uninstalling it is a real pain. Even if they use a different name like Avira SafeSearch Plus or ZoneAlarm Toolbar, it's just a different name for the same crapware. The one thing I really can't stand is that some free security tools attempt to install that dreaded Ask Toolbar on your PC. As far as I know the AV companies get paid as much as few dollars for each user who installs the additional software, and some of them don't even give you a chance to say no. A lot of the free antivirus programs ask permission to install additional software (often branded as " Offers") which either negatively impacts your PC or is simply bad. Why do they do this? Whenever you click on an advertisement from the search engine's result, the antivirus company gets paid.Īnother practice, which sacrifices the user's comfort for monetary gain, is the addition of junkware, crapware, bloatware, or whatever you want to call it, into the installer. The good news is that most ask permission before doing this, so you can avoid it, but some of them don't, which can be very aggravating. Don't be fooled by the term, it's just a lie practically the same as selling water but overcharging because you call it "Fire Extinguishing Water". The most common (and very annoying) thing free antivirus tools do is that they change your default search engine and often brand it as something like " Secure Search". Furthermore, those who make AV software realized that a lot of the people who install free security applications aren't very tech savvy, so they can get away with a lot of uncool stuff. (I think you already know that nothing in this life is actually free). Since most of those who install a free antivirus never actually purchase the paid version, the developers have to make money somehow. The answer to that is pretty simple and related to what I said in the beginning. How can free antivirus programs be harmful?
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