CCleaner is not complying with its legal obligations. The problem does not go away by Ccleaner insisting that the pop-ups are not advertising. I purchased Ccleaner through Cleverbridge.
At first blush, the pop-ups seem to be reminders to resubscribe, but when you follow them are actually promotional upgrades, are months in advance of my licence expiry, and on at least one occasion wrongly stated that my licence had expired. That is promotional advertising. Cleverbridge is in breach of its own privacy policy which states “Without your prior explicit consent, we will only send you Product-related announcements that are not promotional in nature (for example, notices related to your purchase of Products or information regarding the renewal of subscriptions) and only when we believe it is necessary to do so.” The notices include renewal, but go much further. 22 popups in three months is not simply alerting me to the approaching end to my licence. I neither want nor need to be peppered by these unwanted promotions, sometimes more than once a day.
At the very least, the popups are first party direct marketing. I live in Australia, so Australian Privacy Principle 7 applies (I think parallels exist in Europe and North America). That means that even if Ccleaner believes it should send me these popups and genuinely think thay are renewal subscriptions, it must provide an easy way for me to opt out. If I do opt out, it must stop sending them to me. I have opted out many times, and Ccleaner has just ignored me. I have tried to contact the Privacy Officers of Ccleaner, Avast, and Cleverbridge, but after 6-10 weeks none have not responded.
Over to you Ccleaner. What are you doing to comply with your privacy obligations?
