Here we go "AGAIN" with the ADS for services popping up notification tray from Bitdefender

WiseyD · 2022-08-18T02:18:11+00:00

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When does a anti-malware, anti-virus program become adware? Why does Bitdefender feel they can use their products to SPAM their paying customers. This is a betrayal of trust, I'm not paying to be served ads, I even have offers and suggestions turned off in settings. I had this happen a few months ago and now its happening again. I contacted support and they tell me THEY CAN'T TURN IT OFF but don't worry "you'll only get it a few times".

What is the purpose of having 'special offers' and 'recommendation notifications' turned off in settings if Bitdefender is just going to bypass it and push ADS out to their customers anyway.

How can you continue to trust a company that decides to just ignore the wishes of their customers and continue to spam them. If you go to a website and get a pop up ad, that's one thing. When you purchase a product that's supposed to protect you and its used to bypass your wishes, your own protection to PUSH ADS DIRECTLY TO YOUR DESKTOP is that really developing trust? Betraying a position of trust to push ADS against their customers wishes.

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Comments

WiseyD

Tried to post an screenshot of my settings and the pop up ad from Bitdefender but apparently "you have to be around a little longer" before "they" will trust you to do this. They can spam me with it popping up on my desktop / laptop but I can't add an image of it to 'their' forum. Funny.

IAmTheTyrant

I was going to write literally the same post. It's absolutely unacceptable. I already cancelled my automatic renewal as I don't intend to keep financing this. Seriously thinking about legally ask for a refund and sue them, as I didn't pay for this and this is causing me a complete disservice. I paid for something that could actually help me AVOID such hassle, not something that would bother me even more.

Alexandru_BD

Hello,

I am sorry to hear these notifications have caused an inconvenience to you.

@WiseyD you may now attach images to your comments, as I have updated your permissions. After checking your ticket raised with the Support Teams, I have noticed that your inquiry is related to the Password Manager notification. I'll do my best to provide further clarification regarding this.

The recommendations from the dashboard cannot be removed or disabled. The 'recommendation notifications' option that you disabled ensures that you will not have any pop ups on your computer, reminding you of these features in Bitdefender, but they will continue to appear in the dashboard along with a few others. The most recent Password Manager notification is not an ad. It is unrelated to 'special offers', therefore disabling this option will not remove it, but it can be dismissed when displayed. Its sole purpose is to raise awareness of the benefits of using a Password Manager and the features it has to offer.

While some users might not be interested in new features and services, recommendations provide value for the majority of users that wish to be kept informed and up to date with the latest developments. But most of the notifications in Bitdefender can be disabled. The developers understand that users may have specific needs and must tailor the functions and notifications to suit the mass of users and cover the requirements across the spectrum in the best way possible.

At the same time, features and notifications may be subject to future changes, as the development teams are constantly collecting user feedback in order to adjust and improve the products and services.

@IAmTheTyrant I appreciate your feedback and I regret to hear you are dissatisfied by this notification. Should you wish to request a refund for your Password Manager service, you may send your request to our Support Teams at refunds@bitdefender.com within 30 days of your initial purchase.

Regards

Ironbuket

Ive only seen it a few times, but I have also been annoyed by the popup adverts in the paid version. In my case it was the ad to encourage me to save all my passwords in one place. It's come up at least 3 or 4 times recently. What annoyed me was that the popup itself didnt appear to have any controls or settings to turn future popups of this kind off.

Why is there no ' Do not remind me about this again' button on the popup adverts?

IAmTheTyrant

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/314554#Comment_314554

The notifications are not limited to the Password Manager (and I didn't buy that, by the way).

The notifications are many and different. Like Bitdefender VPN advertising spawning everytime I do something, for example.

The problem is very simple: Bitdefender keeps letting you know you can buy this or this other extension, and does that constantly, actually spamming you.

I am just asking for a way to cancel any spam / commercial / suggestion notification from your product (and I see many are asking for that in these forums). Is that so hard to understand?

Scott

I think what Bitdefender needs to do is take a cue from the "evil" Kaspersky, where disabling the news and promotional notifications in the software resolves it, and instead have the little advert appear on the forum regarding possible add-ons, security features to buy.

Wouldn't you all rather see a small banner add at the top of this forum for Premium Password Manager or Premium VPN etc. here, rather than the notifications, pop-up in our Dashboards or devices?

Just a thought :)

edit: and by the way, those ads do revolve when you got to the forum, just to make sure members are aware of the possible feature upgrades.

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

The VPN notification is indeed different from the Password Manager notification. 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 user can utilize the full functionality of the product they chose. So, the VPN notification is meant to help users make the best out of their Bitdefender subscription and it's not an ad, as the functionality is already included in the product.

All Bitdefender apps are easily removable via standard platform specific mechanisms (eg for Windows, go to Programs & Features) therefore, in case you do not require VPN coverage, you can easily uninstall it.

In regards to the Password Manager pop up notification, this is a recommendation that can be dismissed by clicking on the "x" button. It may be displayed a couple of times and we have learned that this behavior caused an inconvenience to the end users, so the development teams are looking into it.

Regards

Scott

Good point about the VPN, Alexandru. It's just there have been so many threads about notifications etc. and I know the engineers are working to resolve things, but I just thought there may be a different way to help notify members, even when the settings are disabled. Just trying to think outside the box, or at least the Dashboard :)

Alexandru_BD

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/314607#Comment_314607

It is very important at this point to know exactly what "few times" means. How many times did you receive the Password Manager notification and after you dismissed it at first, how much time has passed before it was displayed again? We are now gathering as much information as we can from the users as the developers look into it.

Regards

AnotherDave

@Alexandru_BD

The new Password Manager popup notifications started for me just within recent weeks, and I keep dismissing them on all my systems (several Windows 10 and one Windows 11) , but the notice returns at least once per day.

I reboot my all my systems at least once per day, sometimes two or three times. Perhaps that influences the algorithm for the notice?

I'm not interested in BD's Password Manager, as I'm quite happy with a superior product I've been using for years (Roboform Everywhere).

I know myself and many others would truly appreciate the option to disable this notice, since dismissing it isn't helping.

Can we please get the developers to update the code for the dismiss function so that BD stops hitting us with this popup after a reasonable number of dismissals? Reasonable as in twice at most. Please and thank you.

bt_user_jack

I agree - I've had this pop up now more than 5 times and often when I'm trying to focus on work. Like everyone else I've got "Recommendation notifications: Get on-screen recommendations about security features you can use." turned off. The BD Password Manager pop-up is literally a 'recommendation about security features you can use.', so to have this feature turned off and still see pop-ups is very frustrating.

Like others, above, this 'feature' is turning me off what is otherwise a good product and making me consider whether I should turn off my auto-renew. I've got no problem with reminders about new features appearing within my Bitdefender Dashboard, but I really don't like notifications which I have no way of turning off popping up all the time. Please listen to your customers, turn this feature off and think about other, less intrusive ways to market new features/products.

UsernameUsername

I've seen it at least 5 times on one device. Please stop 😣

vbfhg rh

What utter contempt Bitdefender has for its customers to force these repeated unwanted pop ups on a paid for product.

In my mind this is malware.

Absolutely shocking from a product which is meant to stop these things.

greybits

While I didn't record when this started, I feel like this pop-up has been appearing for at least two weeks every time I restart my computer.

"...recommendations provide value for the majority of users that wish to be kept informed and up to date with the latest development."

I get that and agree that informing users of new developments is a good thing. I applaud the company for that. However, the fact is, most Bitdefender customers are probably fairly security conscious and most probably already use a password manager (either from BD or another solution). I know I've been using other solutions for many years and I won't be switching.

I appreciate the information about this feature, I acknowledge it exists, and I would like it to be tied to the other "Recommended notification" items that can be disabled. Seriously, treating this feature notification differently than the others essentially turns this pop-up into an intrusive ad for a feature/service that I and many others will *never* use. I trust that the company understands that purposely annoying the user base creates dissatisfied customers.

AnotherDave

@greybits - Good post.

Although I can see why this notice is not part of the "Special offers" or "Recommendation notifications" that we can disable, and I DO want to be notified when a feature has been added / changed / removed (example: would have been great if we'd all received a notice before they removed the security widget letting us know they were planning to remove it, which would have saved us all from 5 months of petitioning to have it brought back last year) , we definitely need to be given a proper "Dismiss and don't show this again" option for all such notifications.

@Alexandru_BD - To help with the info you're gathering from users and sharing with the devs here's an update:

Using my main system only the past 2 days:

I did not get the popup yesterday
I did not restart the system yet today, and still got the popup again just 30 minutes ago

So... apparently it's not always system reboots triggering it. There seems to be some other algorithm at work in the code. I've dismissed the notice at least 10 times in the past couple weeks.

Hoping for a permanent dismiss option soon.

Gjoksi

Hello.

I just had a chat with Bitdefender Consumer Support about the Password Manager pop-up notification and here is the answer from Alberto M. (Support Agent):

"This notification was generated by a technical issue that will be fixed by Thursday 25th of August 2022."

Let's just hope on that day the issue with the notification will be really fixed for good.

Regards.

Gjoksi

Hello again.

Check out these comments:

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/314857#Comment_314857

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/314860#Comment_314860

Regards.

Mike_BD

Hello @UsernameUsername @AnotherDave @greybits @IAmTheTyrant and @WiseyD and thanks for sharing this here.

The unwanted notifications were generated by a technical issue on our side and we rushed to address this in a fix, released to the whole user base on August 23rd 2022. We apologize for the inconveniences caused.

Mike

AnotherDave

@Mike_BD thank you very much for the update, and thanks to the team for addressing the issue quickly after seeing the user reports here, much appreciated!

Mike_BD

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/314891#Comment_314891

Sure thing, Dave.

We'll continue to keep a close eye on this, as we are now following up on the root cause.

Mike

TarValon

I'm still getting this pop-up about the BD Password Manager. Has BD still not given us the option to "Dismiss and don't show this again" ? Getting tired of having this interrupt my workflow.

Gjoksi

@TarValon

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

5. 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"

6. 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/

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:

1. On any internet-connected device launch a web browser, visit https://central.bitdefender.com�and sign in to your Bitdefender Central account.

2. 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.

3. Access the "Data & Privacy" tab, then click on the "Privacy preferences" section.

4. 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.