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.

[angel'o'sphere]

I always asumed it was malware anyway.

Re:CCleaner is only needed b/c sloppiness.

[PPH]

And replace it with what?

systemd

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.

[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:"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.

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

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.

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: "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.