Avast (who own Ccleaner and Norton) is in trouble again

echo2446 · Feb 26, 2024

Haha, I guess if you value your privacy, you should just cut and run. I personally am not convinced this is going to stop them from doing something more nefarious to get around this restriction, i.e. "banned from selling or licensing browsing data for advertising purposes."

antspants · Feb 26, 2024

I don’t believe that there is a company (including Microsoft) that doesn’t do it. Some companies are just better at it than others. Just my opinion by the way.

jimbo45 · Feb 26, 2024

Just look at the sheer logistics of world wide internet -- the amount of "data" is growing even more than exponentially --- unless you make yourself a person of interest then I wouldn't worry about so much about the privacy issue. In any case most "democratic" countries have reasonable Data protection laws in place.

If advertising really bother people so much just ignore it /watch something else on a 2nd monitor while the advert is on / playing / block the site in future,

I can't say ads bother me that much -I'm usually pretty impervious to any "Sales Spiel".

What does irritate me beyond measure though are those call centres who waste about 10 to 15 mins of your time telling you "Your problem could be solved by using our website". I really can't understand why those peanut sized brains don't realize that 99.9999% of people wouldn't be tolerating those excruciatingly horrible call centres if they could get the solution on the web -- they've probably already done that already.

cheers
jimbo
'

antspants · Feb 26, 2024

Can’t argue with you there, @jimbo45. And I vaguly recall a conversation you had last year about the call center issue.

What concerns me, and I know I’ll probably be long gone when it happens, is Facial recognition databases and their eventually being made available commercially. It will happen, convince me otherwise.
I’d bet my beautiful house on the fact that there are companies that have stored data collected from us that can’t yet be used legally and too dangerous to be used illegally. But when it can be, look out. Laws are deteriorating, privacy is a myth, corporations have more power and control than ever, they influence Govts
I know what some may be thinking, Minority Report, Blade Runner. But It’s inevitable, again in my opinion.

PS. No conspiracy, just inevitable change and progress.

jimbo45 · Feb 26, 2024

antspants said:
Can’t argue with you there, @jimbo45. And I vaguly recall a conversation you had last year about the call center issue.

What concerns me, and I know I’ll probably be long gone when it happens, is Facial recognition databases and their eventually being made available commercially. It will happen, convince me otherwise.
I’d bet my beautiful house on the fact that there are companies that have stored data collected from us that can’t yet be used legally and too dangerous to be used illegally. But when it can be, look out. Laws are deteriorating, privacy is a myth, corporations have more power and control than ever, they influence Govts
I know what some may be thinking, Minority Report, Blade Runner. But It’s inevitable, again in my opinion.

PS. No conspiracy, just inevitable change and progress.

Actually facial recognition would fix a lot of what seems to be more "aggrevated" Street crime in bigger cities --e.g Barcelona, Rome, London, Paris, Milan, LA, NYC etc. --I see also in London "Bike jacking" is getting more common as some of those "Rich city bankers" ride very expensive modern bikes which can be sold off very quickly.

Facial recognition could also help with logon to websites and PC's without having to remember zillions of passwords and could eliminate passports, driving licenses etc etc (plus the zillions of public service employees who process these requests. Would also make using forged documents far more difficult if not impossible. I'd be quite happy to accept a slight downside in return for seeing more people back where they belong -- behind bars (and I mean those that don't serve alcohol). !!

Cheers
jimbo

Winuser · Feb 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
What does irritate me beyond measure though are those call centres who waste about 10 to 15 mins of your time

I don't get bothered by them anymore. My provider offered NOMOROBO. If a number is on the list it gets redirected after one ring and the caller has to enter a number if they want to complete a call. If I remember correctly the phone then rings again and the caller ID would say NOMOROBO. I'm also in the habit now letting calls go to my voice mail. Unless I'm expecting a call and I don't know their number, I don't answer. There was a time I would waste their time if I wasn't busy. My favorite was the calls that were supposed to be from MS. I would let them go through their routine for 30 minutes or more before I would say, You said my Windows install is infected? I don't know how that happened because I own a Apple computer. When they heard that they couldn't hang-up fast enough.

Flashorn · Feb 26, 2024

antspants said:
just inevitable change and progress.

Change maybe but, Progress?

jimbo45 · Feb 26, 2024

Winuser said:
I don't get bothered by them anymore. My provider offered NOMOROBO. If a number is on the list it gets redirected after one ring and the caller has to enter a number if they want to complete a call. If I remember correctly the phone then rings again and the caller ID would say NOMOROBO. I'm also in the habit now letting calls go to my voice mail. Unless I'm expecting a call and I don't know their number, I don't answer. There was a time I would waste their time if I wasn't busy. My favorite was the calls that were supposed to be from MS. I would let them go through their routine for 30 minutes or more before I would say, You said my Windows install is infected? I don't know how that happened because I own a Apple computer. When they heard that they couldn't hang-up fast enough.

Hi there
I used to lead them on for 30 mins or so and finally end with :

"My Windows all have triple glazing and the window locks have all passed Police security standards" so I doubt if I need your service.

I'm sure there were a few unparliamentary words spoken in the call centre after they disconnected.

If you still have landlines voice mail solution is the best -- on a mobile just block any calls that doesn't have caller-id enabled.

Cheers
jimbo

Flashorn · Feb 26, 2024

Look at what I just found"

How to Find Out an Unknown Caller’s Number

Receiving calls from an unknown number can be frustrating. Learn how to find out who is calling you from an unknown number here.

www.avast.com

Bet you this is one of their money makers.

antspants · Feb 26, 2024

Flashorn said:
Change maybe but, Progress?

l should of clarified, progress for corporations.

antspants · Feb 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
Actually facial recognition would fix a lot of what seems to be more "aggrevated" Street crime in bigger cities --e.g Barcelona, Rome, London, Paris, Milan, LA, NYC etc. --I see also in London "Bike jacking" is getting more common as some of those "Rich city bankers" ride very expensive modern bikes which can be sold off very quickly.

Facial recognition could also help with logon to websites and PC's without having to remember zillions of passwords and could eliminate passports, driving licenses etc etc (plus the zillions of public service employees who process these requests. Would also make using forged documents far more difficult if not impossible. I'd be quite happy to accept a slight downside in return for seeing more people back where they belong -- behind bars (and I mean those that don't serve alcohol). !!

Cheers
jimbo

I agree that facial recognition has its place. No doubt at all.
In fact it is used at my Gold Coast Airport in Australia, probably most airports in Australia.
It’s the future or Facial recognition and how it may be used by commercially by companies that concerns me.

Winuser · Feb 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
Hi there
I used to lead them on for 30 mins or so and finally end with :

"My Windows all have triple glazing and the window locks have all passed Police security standards" so I doubt if I need your service.

I'm sure there were a few unparliamentary words spoken in the call centre after they disconnected.

If you still have landlines voice mail solution is the best -- on a mobile just block any calls that doesn't have caller-id enabled.

Cheers
jimbo

That's a good one too. My son watches a few guys that make YouTube videos of them messing with scam callers. One guy is so good that he has accessed a few of their systems and was deleting their data.

antspants · Feb 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
I'd be quite happy to accept a slight downside in return for seeing more people back where they belong -- behind bars

I am more than inclined to agree. But when I read 1984 (in the late 80’s) I wasn’t thinking far fetched science fiction. I’d watched the world move forward. My concern is civil liberties and the abuse of..

Winuser · Feb 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
Actually facial recognition would fix a lot of what seems to be more "aggrevated" Street crime in bigger cities

AI facial recognition can be abused. MSN.

antspants · Feb 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
on a mobile just block any calls that doesn't have caller-id enabled.

Govt services in Australia are allowed and are inclined to use No Caller ID. It’s not helpful at all that they do that.

jimbo45 · Feb 26, 2024

Winuser said:
AI facial recognition can be abused. MSN.

Anything can be abused

But as the popular saying goes "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater".

Cheers
jimbo

antspants · Feb 26, 2024

I think the biggest threat to privacy or “data collection” of late is ChatGPT. It’s actually genius in respect to collecting data. I am not specifically talking about data linked to any particular individual, just data in itself.

Q: How do we find out what people are thinking, what their needs are, what they’re working on or what their secrets are, their desires or their confidential projects etc etc ad nauseam?

A: Have them tell us.

ChatGPT

ian50 · Feb 26, 2024

This whole "privacy is gone" thing is icky. Drenched in a foetid spray.

The feeling it leaves in me is that of being constantly peeped at through the bedroom window at 2am.

Avast, twice now caught at it, behaves in exactly the manner it purports to protect us from. And no one else is doing this ?

Berton · Feb 26, 2024

Most of the calls I've received last couple months have been about Medicare Advantage and a few about issues with my computer. For the Medicare I keep them on long enough to verify they are not actually in the area the phone number is and the one for the computer problems is when they learn they can't deal with my Linux.