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More Tracking and Data Gathering?


Aethernaut

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On 10/28/2018 at 22:08, Aethernaut said:

I noticed that when CCleaner was running (monitoring was supposedly switched off and I'd supposedly opted out of everything else) my machine constantly contacted:

ip-info.ff.avast.com
shepherd.sb.avast.com
analytics.ff.avast.com

There appears to be nothing at ip-info.ff.avast.com but a search for the URL found a reference to http://ip-info.ff.avast.com/v1/info in an Avast support forum. This does work and going to the address displays accurate data under each of the below headings:

ip address - continent - continentCode - country - countryName - City - timezone - latitude - longitude - isp* - asnNumber* - asnOrganization* - organization* - postalCode

Headings marked * relate to my ISP, the rest are personal (including lattitude, longitude and postcode).

I have not determined what data the other URLs are after, however I notice that analytics.ff.avast.com is included in tracking blocklists.

Now uninstalled and the whole avast.com domain is blocked outgoing until I am happy it has actually gone.

Getting back to Aethernaut's original question about location and IP address tracking, have the v5.49.6856 (12 Nov 2018), v5.50.6911 (29 Nov 2018) or v5.51.6939 (13 Dec 2018) updates given users any additional control over how this data is collected?  If not, does Avast have any plans to include a setting in a future release to allow users to opt out of this type of tracking?

My understanding is that the new update settings in v5.50.6911 now allow users to disable the CCleaner Emergency Updater that was introduced back in v5.36.6278 (see the AskVG article [Tip] Customize and Control CCleaner Automatic Updates Settings) but I can't see any new settings to disable the collection of tracking data that Avast employee Stephen Piriform discussed in his 29-Oct-2018 post <here> in this thread.

After reading employee Stephen Piriform's response, I still don't understand the justification for collecting this type of location tracking data with CCleaner - it's a disk cleaning utility, not a real-time antivirus program.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.15.1.8 * CCleaner Portable v5.47.6716

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1 hour ago, lmacri said:

I still don't understand the justification for collecting this type of location tracking data with CCleaner

Seems to be a very popular thing for allot of software (including hardware) to do that and it isn't nothing new. Perhaps the GDPR has shined a very powerful light upon it.

The problem with it speaking in general about any software or hardware that has tracking being "non-identifiable" the information could likely become identifiable once a known behavior is logged (which is what I think upsets all of us). Such as example: Device-1 is logged as being used the most at Point-A everyday/weekly/monthly which could deduce based upon an educated guess that the person lives at Point-A -- hard to state it's still "non-identifiable" then which is often briefly covered in the software/hardware privacy policy or other agreements we click upon Yes to "comply" with since we could become identifiable.

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It's the nature of 'identifiable individual' that seems to be a blind spot for some companies.

The usual response is "We are not collecting your name or address, so the information collected is anonymous".

Of course it isn't and can still be connected to an Individual, even if not by name.

GDPR tries to cover this issue, but it's taking some companies time to realise it. (Especially when they don't want to).
GDPR specifically includes the term ‘online identifiers’ within the definition of what constitutes personal data.
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/what-is-personal-data/what-are-identifiers-and-related-factors/

*** Out of Beer Error ->->-> Recovering Memory ***

Worried about 'Tracking Files'? Worried about why some files come back after cleaning? See this link:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/52668-tracking-files/?tab=comments#comment-300043

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 30/10/2018 at 00:29, hazelnut said:

..and that's the reason you are giving as to why people who have opted out are still being tracked??

Really this has got to stop. Piriform/Avast are using users as info collecting machines.

CCleaner is supposed to be a junk cleaner.. it's now turning into something sinister.

+1

Avast has ruined what used to be an old favourite, trusted and reliable tool.

 

(sorry weeder, no competition software allowed to be named)

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Well when we're all being spied upon by the operating systems themselves others follow suit. Whereas image in some alternate universe where Windows doesn't spy on us, and completely disables it in software that tries to.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/29/2018 at 07:32, login123 said:

Things change. 

Recently  when I went to a banking site, Avast popped a warning that said "It's easy to see what you do online.  Keep your banking details safe.  Hide me now." 

This is unacceptable behavior from a software.
I have been a fan of ccleaner and avast for a long time. No longer. 

I'm not sure what the next step is for this old xp computer, but I'm actively seeking a new protective strategy.

I'm staying w/ Avast, only fair to report that here. I looked around a bit and Avast is still my choice. It is a good AV, works well on xp and w7.
I realize that the worlds IT security community is NOT hanging on my every word, but fair is fair. Mustn't leave the wrong impression

I still maintain that those popup behaviors described earlier are a terrible idea. The warning is true enough, but their purpose seems to be scaring the user into upgrading. For me they are annoying, for many they would be frightening.  

 

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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