Avast Pulls the Latest Version of CCleaner Following Privacy Controversy (betanews.com)

Piriform, the maker of CCleaner, has pulled v5.45 of its suite from the website after users expressed concerns over the privacy changes in the application, the company, which was acquired by Avast last year, said. In v5.45, the company made it impossible to disable "active monitoring", and the privacy settings had been removed for free customers. Additionally, as BetaNews reported earlier this week, Avast also made it impossible for users to quit the software. Addressing these concerns, Avast said, "Today we have removed v5.45 and reverted to v5.44 as the main download for CCleaner while we work on a new version with several key improvements." The company added: We're currently working on separating out cleaning functionality from analytics reporting and offering more user control options which will be remembered when CCleaner is closed. We're also creating a factsheet to share which will outline the data we collect, for which purposes and how it is processed. [...] As stated before, we'll split cleaning alerts (which don't send any data) from UI trend data (which is anonymous and only there to measure the user experience) and provide a separate setting for each in the user preferences. Some of these features run as a separate process from the UI: we'll restore visibility of this in the notifications area, and you'll be able to close it down from that icon menu as before. We understand the importance of this to you all. This work is our number 1 priority and we are taking the time to get it right in the next release. There are numerous changes required, so that does mean it will take weeks, not days. While we work on this, we have removed version 5.45 and reinstated version 5.44. According to stats shared by the company, CCleaner has been downloaded over two billion times. In a week, it is estimated to see five million downloads.

Comments

"We understand the importance of this to you all."

[Anonymous Coward]

Translation: "Damn, they noticed that we tried $bad_shit, quick, let's pretend it was a mistake!"

Fuck you.

CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[Anonymous Coward]

If Microsoft would fix the implementation of the registry, then CCleaner wouldn't even be necessary. Or just get rid of it.

And it would also help if application developers would write their installation and removal programs correctly.

There is no excuse for the sloppiness.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[jeffasselin]

Get rid of the registry? And replace it with what? A rolodex stored in a filing cabinet behind a door with a sign that says “Beware of the tiger”? That’s like suggesting getting rid of a baby because it got a cold.

Re: CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, lets see, where's my settings? There's a dotfile with the name of the application in it. The settings are there.

So yes, replace it with /etc or dotfile or, hey, and hear me out, pretty much anything but HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/currentUser/whatever/whatever/whatever/whatever/UUID/(some dword key)

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[richy freeway]

Ccleaner isn't and never has been necessary. It's bullshit software "cleaning" issues that never existed.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Windows registry was never a good idea. One huge file that contains all of the settings for the OS and all installed programs? If the registry gets corrupted, your whole OS ids history!

Avast sold out its user base years ago, collecting and selling users personal private info to advertisers. Obviously they wanted to use CCleaner for the same purpose, but got caught! Collecting and selling user information is one of the biggest businesses these days, and everybody wants to get in on the big bucks to be made!

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[angel'o'sphere]

I always asumed it was malware anyway.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[Anonymous Coward]

You are exactly correct. Other operating systems are better off because they don't have this FEATURE. It might have been okay if only the operating system had used it, but not as a global garbage dump. Apple got this right. Every application should keep it's stuff in its own directory and NO WHERE ELSE.

Re: CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[astrofurter]

Yeah, totally! Least week six houses (apartment buildings, actually) exploded on my block. And that was a slow week.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[PPH]

And replace it with what?

systemd

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[richy freeway]

So what? What difference does it make?

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[fahrbot-bot]

Get rid of the registry? And replace it with what? A rolodex stored in a filing cabinet behind a door with a sign that says "Beware of the tiger"?

How about microfilm? I hear it lasts 500 years.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[Anonymous Coward]

Get rid of the registry? And replace it with what?

There you go folks: "learnt helplessness" defined before your very eyes.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[AmiMoJo]

It does some useful stuff, like removing old crap files that Windows doesn't. Crash dumps, temp files. But that's it.

Bleach Bit does the same thing without the spyware, registry scans etc.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[thegarbz]

If Microsoft would fix the implementation of the registry, then CCleaner wouldn't even be necessary.

I have to ask what it is you're doing with your computer that makes a registry cleaning tool like CCleaner "necessary".
Do you test viruses and malware for a living? Or do you in general do things that don't make sense? Do you also still run SoftRAM and software that cleans your memory, defragments your SSD, and realigns your UDP packets?

I made one of those up.

Re: CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[JackieBrown]

Funny thing is windows has both the registry and a bunch of hidden files stored in various places in our user directory.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[JackieBrown]

If you are on an old ssd card (like me), you want all the space you can get to hold your ridiculously sized games

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[fish_sauce]

I think the registry were supposed to replace INI files which had many drawbacks and limitations. The problem is that they just added another feature with other drawbacks. Recently Microsoft have started to use XML files which also have many drawbacks and limitations.
So now we have INI files, the registry and XML files. Microsoft loves to add to a problem instead of solving it correctly the first time.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[fish_sauce]

You can reinstall everything and then make a backup. Then after a year, reset to that backup.
Some school computers even resets after a student have logged off their account or the hard drive is read only or a software keeps track of new files and removes them after log off, so very many ways to keep a computer clean.

When you have to update a software, reset, update software then update backup. The reset method would be perfect if it were not for the update issue. With some software you can keep track of what a software installs so when you want to remove the software you can do it with that software, it will remove everything from the install. What files the software creates after the install will be left undeleted. Many methods, none of them perfect.

It could be perfect but that requires the operating system to change and support it and become better at installing updates and removing old files that will become unused after the update.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[fish_sauce]

CCleaner also did this and messed up other things too. CCleaner even bricked computers.

Re:"We understand the importance of this to you al

[guygo]

quite. If they understood the importance of it, why was it ever removed? Yuppie management BS trying to cover up lame monetization attempts that threatened the viability of the software. Typical.

Just use OpenBSD.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just use OpenBSD. Security becomes a lot simpler for average users because the OpenBSD developers, who are amongst the most knowledgeable and talented software security professionals out there, have built an extraordinarily secure and robust OS in OpenBSD. You don't need virus scanners and registry cleaners with OpenBSD.

going going gone!

[AndyKron]

I guess I'll just hold on to my old CCleaner. And Eagle CAD, and...

Glaries Utilities

[Anonymous Coward]

I always used Glaries Utilities and CCleaner. Since Avast bought CCleaner, we got more and moe shit with a software that always worked like a charm and satyed away of this shit for years.

Now, I only Use Glaries utilities.

Re:"We understand the importance of this to you al

[Anonymous Coward]

These is classic "war of attrition" tactics on the part of software makers. As more and more experienced computer folks leave the playing field to give rise to the age of the "what's a computer?" smartphone and tablet crowds, there will be fewer and fewer folks with the experience and knowledge to catch chicanery like this. And those that are able will all be working for these asshats. The fact is, the sleazy, cyberpunk-style-megacorporations have already won by default; they just need to wait a bit longer to collect their winnings.

Congratulations, you are the product. "Free" never sounded so great, huh?

Re: "We understand the importance of this to you

[Anonymous Coward]

Millennials? I think you misspelled assholes. They exist in every generation.

What if software just did what it was told?

[Anonymous Coward]

What if software had a single purpose and just did what it was told? Wouldn't that be wacky

Re:What if software just did what it was told?

[JackieBrown]

Exactly! Only get software from government agencies like the NSA. Avoid corps at all cost! You can't trust those capitalistic pigs!

Don't forget!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Avast, Piriform, and many others only exist because Windows is a total piece of shit!

People never understand

[SirAstral]

Free only 'legally' means you don't have to pay cash, but it is never actually free, you just pay for it with other currencies like privacy, control/ownership, social/political/economic standing, liberty/prison/indenture/employment, and sadly but occasionally life itself through war/crime/tyranny/accident/health.

You are going to pay one way or another, even when it is 'free'!

Re: "We understand the importance of this to you

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Millenial is a generation. Yuppie is a concept -- Young, Upwardly-Mobile (climbing the corporate ladder of power and wealth) Professionals.

That's shifted somewhat and needs a spawn for the new startup culture. Young, Avaricious Startup Spawner Hawkers of Low Expectation of Success, or Yassholes.

Uninstalling 5.45

[sehlat]

Just do a "trial" download of 5.44, which is up at least as of a few minutes ago. Install it, run it, then shut it down and uninstall. As far as I can determine, CCleaner's gone.

Re: "We understand the importance of this to you

[war4peace]

"From now on thou shalt be called YASSHLE!"

one strike should have been out

[Riceballsan]

I switched to bleachbit entirely after the malware incident. Now I feel even better about my decision.

Re:one strike should have been out

[Oligonicella]

I dropped CCleaner the first time I noticed that, despite flagging "Not on startup" the friggin' thing still puts itself there. AND, if you remove it manually, it will reinsert itself. Fuck any software that lies to me.

I disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Many times during a failed install - yes, it does happen on Windows - the install program still puts a ton of shit into the registry.

Guess what? You try to install and it thinks the software is still installed.

Or, it buggers up something up.

And removal most of the time leave a ton of crap in the registry that shouldn't be there. And it makes it very hard when trying to fix an issue having to comb through crap that's not even used.

And there are tons of dipshit little issues that crop up on older machines because of registries that are full crap that's just not used. It makes it a support nightmare.

And then there's just the space it takes. I've seen registries on old systems get so large that cleaning them up makes a HUGE difference in available space.

No, sir. CCleaner is a valuable tool - I'll give them that.

Re: I disagree

[fish_sauce]

I have had reports that CCleaner can cause issues because it removes something that was still in use. Some have reported CCleaner bricked their computer.

I see CCleaner as another form of a "ram cleaner". A ram cleaner tries to allocate as much memory as possible and then it frees it which leaves free ram behind. But all it does is push the memory that were in the ram to the page file, causing slowdowns when the memory is requested and needs to be put back to the ram again.
Snake-oil software. Many users do not know any better. Which is good, this is how I earn my paycheck. No matter how many times I tell users what not to do they ignore me and do it anyway. Well, it is their money, I will happily take it away from them as punishment for not listening to me.

Re: "We understand the importance of this to you a

[mikael]

Security software companies have always done this. Like Cisco that tried to change the web UI of their home routers from local PC based to "through a cloud account".

There is nothing worse that having customised the security settings of a DSL wifi-router to the highest possible, only to find "We performed a factory reset to upgrade the firmware. All your security settings have been reverted to the default settings".

It's interesting to note that CCleaner gets annoyed that it can't reset and clear the log files of other security applications.

I've also noticed that some firewall software would log various events like failed login attempts, but after an upgrade, they would no longer log these events.

Re:"Privay" concerns...

[Shikaku]

There's a very easy way to still have privacy, by just asking:

"Would you like to enable logging and data collection solely so we can debug our software and find bugs and other user experience problems for this software? Yes/No"

CCleaner for Android is a joke

[OneHundredAndTen]

Actually, a very bad joke. It does not really do anything that you can do by hand, it is intrusive, it consumes lots of resources, and it is generally obnoxious.

I left Avast A/V behind for reasons like this...

[QuietLagoon]

... looks like Avast is now doing similar things to ccleaner. Time for a new cleaning app. Avast software products are supposed to add to security, not detract from it.

Portable?

[antdude]

From what I read, portable version is OK.

OLD NEWS

[Stan92057]

First this is OLD NEWS this happened a month or so ago i switched back to 5.44 and denied CCleaner internet access and i manually check for updates Their hasn't been any since the first broke news.. wtf is going on here at /. anymore? news that really matters doesn't show for weeks after?

Re:OLD NEWS

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

First this is OLD NEWS this happened a month or so ago i switched back to 5.44 and denied CCleaner internet access and i manually check for updates Their hasn't been any since the first broke news.. wtf is going on here at /. anymore? news that really matters doesn't show for weeks after?

Wait probably 3-4 days for this whole story to be resubmitted as brand new. I'm not kidding. And don't be shocked if it only takes 2 days for it happen.

At least this resubmission could be useful. We also tend to get submissions where the submitter lacks good reading skills. For example, someone will say something like "Not X. Definitely not X. Whatever you are thinking it is, it's not X. It could be anything else but it never was and never will be X." Then the submitter will say "They said it's X! They said it's X!"

fantastic OS

[sad_]

OS is such a wasteland that it needs special tools to clean up after itself.
said tools are just as horrible, people still keep using both because... no valid reason what so ever.

Re:"We understand the importance of this to you al

[Wolfrider]

--The executives that mandated/approved the change in the first place? They need to be fired. Put that on your TODO list, Avast.