How to disable intrusive Bitdefender ads?

AntiVirusUser

I bought YOUR product. Why do I constantly get these annoying VPN spam ads that I can not deactivate? This is extremely unprofessional behaviour and it makes your product look like maleware. I hate it.

I was a happy Kasperky user, but due to the current situation, I had to switch my antivirus software. However, your scummy VPN ads are driving me crazy. Maybe I should just go back to Kasperky, which was just working, without annoying me. By the way, I already did deactivate "Special offers" and "Recommend products" in the settings menu.

Are there any solutions?

Gjoksi

Hello.

Open your Bitdefender program and go to:

1. Settings -> General and disable "Special offers" and "Recommendation notifications"

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. Privacy -> Safepay -> Settings and disable "Safepay notifications"

4. 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"

5. 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.

Also, under Utilities -> Profiles -> Settings, when "Work Profile" or "Game Profile" is enabled/activated, all Bitdefender alerts and pop-ups are disabled.

Finally, you can simply uninstall Bitdefender VPN from your device by following the steps provided here:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2791/

Just Select "Bitdefender VPN".

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.

Regards.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @AntiVirusUser and welcome to Bitdefender and the Community!

I'm gonna jump in here and provide a bit more context regarding the above pop-up message. The notification displayed in your screenshot is not an advertisement, as the VPN is already included in your antivirus subscription. All customers that use one of our security suites also benefit from 200 Mb/day of free VPN encrypted traffic, therefore the app is installed, so the customer can utilize the full functionality of the product they purchased.

To safeguard you against the perils of unsecured or unencrypted public Wi-Fi, Bitdefender Wi-Fi Security Advisor analyzes how secure a wireless network is, and when necessary, it recommends you to use Bitdefender VPN. Bitdefender Wi-Fi Security Advisor monitors the following networks: Home Wi-Fi, Office Wi-Fi, Public Wi-Fi.

To find out more about the Security Advisor, you can check the article below:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/40620/

Should you not require a VPN connection, you can simply uninstall it. All Bitdefender apps are easily removable via standard platform specific mechanisms (eg for Windows, go to Programs & Features).

Regards

Alexandru_BD

In addition, should you wish to disable any VPN-related notifications, simply access the VPN interface and toggle the notifications switch to OFF:

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers

AntiVirusUser

This is completely unacceptable. Why am I forced to do all these things just to have a working product? I will move to a different anti-virus software as soon as possible.

THE ONLY NOTIFICATION THAT I WANT FROM ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE IS IF THERE IS SOMETHING BAD HAPPENING! Keep recommendations and other stuff INSIDE your application or print a little "!" on the task bar icon.