Pop-up notifications

Ron517

Nothing I've seen here so far addresses how to turn off the annoying pop-up notifications. I have everything turned off yet I still get pop-ups about new devices, blocked suspicious activity, etc. It's frustrating when I'm gaming because the pop-ups cause games to pause until I close the pop-up window. There is nothing under the general setting to stop this. Image attached.

Gjoksi

Hello.
Open your Bitdefender program and go to:

1. Settings -> General and disable "Special offers" and "Recommendation notifications" (for the "Password Manager" notification)
2. Protection -> Antivirus -> Settings -> Scan flash drives and select "Autoscan" or "Disabled", do not select "Ask every time" (for the "USB Immunizer Recommendation" notification)
3. Protection -> Antivirus -> Settings -> Scan CD & DVD and select "Autoscan" or "Disabled", do not select "Ask every time" (for the "CD/DVD Recommendation" notification)
4. Protection -> Vulnerability -> Settings and disable "Wi-Fi Security Advisor"
5. Privacy -> Safepay -> Settings and disable "Safepay notifications" and "Automatically open Bitdefender Safepay"
6. Privacy -> Video & Audio Protection -> Settings and disable "Notify when allowed applications connect to the webcam", "Notify when an application tries to access the microphone" and "Notify when browsers access the microphone"
7. Utilities -> Profiles -> Settings and disable "Activate profiles automatically" (for the Profile notification)
   After doing that, in the future no pop-up notifications will be displayed in the lower right corner of your screen.
   REMEMBER: When a threat is detected, a pop-up notification will be displayed in the lower right corner of your screen and you can't disable those pop-up notifications.
   Next, as an option to fully disable the Bitdefender alerts and pop-ups, open your Bitdefender program, go to Utilities -> Profiles -> Settings and enable/activate "Work Profile" or "Game Profile".
   When "Work Profile" or "Game Profile" is enabled/activated, all Bitdefender alerts and pop-ups are disabled.
   Finally, as for the Bitdefender VPN pop-ups, you can simply uninstall Bitdefender VPN from your device by following the steps provided here (just select "Bitdefender VPN"):
   https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2791/
   or
   open the Bitdefender VPN program, go to Settings -> Notifications and disable "Allow notifications".
   It is recommended that you also review the privacy preferences set in your Bitdefender Central account:
8. On any internet-connected device launch a web browser, visit
   https://central.bitdefender.com
   and sign in to your Bitdefender Central account.
9. Click on your username in the top right corner and select "Bitdefender Account" in the menu. This option will launch in a new browser tab.
10. Access the "Data & Privacy" tab, then click on the "Privacy preferences" section.
11. Uncheck both boxes to stop promotional messages:

• Receive in product insights regarding threats, news, and offers.
• Receive insights regarding threats, news, and offers via email.
  Regards.

Ron517

Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately my version doesn't seem to have most of the settings you describe above. I'm going to use BD until I find a better, less annoying. app.

velvet ant

Thank you for your information, Gjoksi. Under 'data and privacy' the only option available to me is 'delete account'. I would dearly like these pop-ups to disappear and for Bitdefender to do its job quietly in the background.

Alexandru_BD

Hi @velvet ant,

If you are refering to in-product security notifications, these are not really tied to the 'data and privacy' section from your account, as that refers to another type of notifications. What exactly are the pop-ups that you wish to suppress? Is it a security-related pop-up like 'threat detected', or 'suspicious connection blocked', for example? Being a security product, it doesn't have the option to silence all notifications, because some events may require user input. Other alerts may also be critical for your system's safety, as such, they must be displayed in order to keep the user informed about what is happening on the device.

velvet ant

Thank you Alexandru - yes, security notifications. None have required action and this is only a recent phenomenon.

Alexandru_BD

Can you tell me what does the notification say? What type of detection is it?

velvet ant

They are all 'suspicious connection blocked' - 168 in 2 days.

Alexandru_BD

I suspected it was this type of notification. 🙂 Check the below article for steps to follow:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2471/

velvet ant

Thank you - I have followed the steps in the document you sent me a link to. So far so good. I really appreciate your time and effort in helping me :)

PS - pop-ups are back - they all mention 'sync.contextualadv.com'. Have raised a ticket with Support.

Alexandru_BD

Hi @velvet ant and thanks for getting back.
That sounds like a browser redirect, if you don't actually access that page and the antivirus is constantly returning a detection there. My advice would be to reset your browser first, if you haven't done this already. And also remove any unknown or unwanted browser extensions that might be installed and could redirect you to that website.

velvet ant

OK - thank you. Will give that a try and provide an update. I do appreciate you helping me through this.

velvet ant

Still happening I'm afraid….. all to

'sync.contextualadv.com'

Alexandru_BD

Ok. Until this can be resolved by Support, open Bitdefender and go to Protection → Online Threat Prevention → Settings → temporarily disable the Encrypted web scan feature by setting it to the OFF position.

velvet ant

Thank you again. Is it safe to do that? I believe the problem is with Yahoo Mail. Bitdefender Support has suggested I contact webmaster and also sent me the link you'd already provided me with.

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

It's not a recommended action to be honest, but it can help to supress the notifications, especially if they are popping up continuously. The context behind this feature is that more sophisticated attacks might use secure web traffic to mislead their victims. Therefore, it is recommended to keep enabled the Encrypted web scan option enabled, so disabling it is more of a workaround until the root cause of the notifications can be addressed.

velvet ant

Thank you. Bitdefender support write:

It seems that Bitdefender doesn't detect the URLs you have sent as being malicious, however the sites are being blocked because of their SSL certificates….This issue cannot be solved by Bitdefender and it is rather something that the website owner has to address to the SSL certificate supplier.

This still doesn't explain why the Bitdefender can't block the sites silently, as there is no action that I need to take. Appreciate your help.

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

I think it cannot block them silently because this is still considered to be a security-related event, so it will trigger an alert, to notify the user that there is a certificate issue that may pose a threat. And yes, the Support teams are correct. Whenever certificate issues are found, the website owner is the one that should address them, since Bitdefender has no control over this. Even if there are no concerns and the website is not suspicious or malicious, Bitdefender still informs the user that it has identified a potential risk there, and I think it's a good method of prevention, so the antivirus is not only reactive, but also proactive many times.
So, in this case the detection is correct and the software worked as expected.

velvet ant

Hmm - if one follows that reasoning then wouldn't Bitdefender send me a pop-up for each and every potential threat? That said, I'm willing to contact the webmaster, but would that be Yahoo, Firefox or sync.contextualadv? If it's the latter, then I'm not sure I'd want to risk that.

Alexandru_BD

The way I see it, there are two options to try and fix this:

1. contact webmaster or the owner of the main page you are accessing that somehow redirects you to sync.contextualadv, as this looks like some kind of secondary domain;
2. temporarily disable Encrypted web scan, at least until this can be fixed, so that you the recurring pop-ups can be suppressed.