VERY disappointed in Privacy Invasion of latest release -- Active Monitoring WRONG settings! won't turn OFF!

[cliftonprince]

One aspect of the latest release (2017-07-25) is VERY annoying to me. The Active Monitoring feature is EXTREMELY difficult to turn OFF. This is a feature that looks at EVERYTHING YOU DO and keeps records of it. Yes, the use of those records is supposedly benign -- CCleaner will just help me delete those traces, right? But what if I tell you to stop monitoring me? And yet you don't? Am I going to TRUST that your monitoring is benign? No no no. I'm going to pull the PANIC BUTTON. You must must must STOP MONITORING ME!! GIVE ME MY PRIVACY BACK!

Active Monitoring is defaulted to ON when you download this release (despite previous versions having it turned OFF at the time the new release is installed). That's already unreasonable. Then, in order to PREVENT future Active Monitoring, you have to take THREE steps, yes 3, three, THREE! First, (a) deselect the option in the Advanced Options dialog of CCleaner, then (b) disable the Active Monitoring start-up item, BUT NOT DELETE IT (if you delete it, the next run of CCleaner will re-install it, DEFAULTED TO THE ON POSITION AGAIN!), (this deselection also can be done with CCleaner or with any of a number of other start-up-management utilities) and then (the shocker!) you still aren't yet done. That's because you CAN'T QUIT CCLEANER! It's already in Actively Monitoring mode (despite the fact that you didn't want it to do this, it nevertheless has started monitoring on its own) so it will NOT GO AWAY! You have to (c) use Task Manager or some other third-party utility to turn off CCleaner (which otherwise will continue to run and will continue to Actively Monitor despite steps (a) and (b) above, AND FURTHERMORE will re-set your start-up setting from off to on). Then (d) restart your computer. Wow, that's TOO MUCH to make an invasion of privacy go away. Try this: one click. Period. 

This is too difficult, and almost to the point of misleading. The present arrangement manages to "force" CCleaner to run in the background even when you go WAY out of your way to prevent it from doing so. I hope this was a mistake. (If instead it's a deliberate feature, designed to cause CCleaner to exist in the hidden-but-running state, unbeknownst to most typical users, secretly collecting their private information, then this would be the first time in my experience with Piriform that your company has acted so much like Microsoft that I would want to get rid of you if I could. That's not in typical Piriform character.) You've managed to set up your program so that the instant a user first uses it, the user is suddenly, unwittingly, and involuntarily permanently saddled with a pervasive and permanent, and yet potentially unwanted, monitor of 100% of that user's activity forever, a monitor that is essentially secret. This is the case unless the user is more than averagely informed about technical settings and about background processes. To rephrase: YOU'RE SPYING ON ME WITHOUT MY CONSENT EVEN AFTER I DEMAND THAT YOU DON'T DO IT. That's way way WAY uncool.

Suggestion: provide a QUIT button that actually ENDS CCleaner's activity; and provide an INSTANTANEOUS and EFFECTIVE way to disable the Active Monitoring, with ONE CLICK that will (1) end any presently ongoing monitoring AND ALSO will (2) disable any future monitoring from re-starting without user input. The present set-up is a subterfuge that implements invasions of my privacy directly against what I thought were my express wishes (by selecting certain more private settings) otherwise, because when I select those certain more private settings, they are not implemented transparently, but instead are controverted by other contradictory and misleading settings.

 

[hazelnut]

You are one of many complaining about this and other things.

It's up to Avast/Piriform to make a statement about things.

So far.. no comment from them regarding monitoring.

https://forum.piriform.com/topic/52292-ccleaner-545-riddled-with-bugs/

 

[ukheather]

I agree 100%

piriform haven’t even said anything and there are a lot of unhappy people.

[TorrentG]

I registered to say holy ___________ ! I know I will just be banned or deleted if I wrote precisely as I want, so use your imaginations, please. This, coming from someone that has studied the works of Mark Russinovich for a very long time: You are out of your minds to do this to people.

People trust this program to clean and enhance privacy - not this disgusting ____________. Shame x1M.

[cburcham]

Quote

16 hours ago, cliftonprince said:

One aspect of the latest release (2017-07-25) is VERY annoying to me. The Active Monitoring feature is EXTREMELY difficult to turn OFF. This is a feature that looks at EVERYTHING YOU DO and keeps records of it. Yes, the use of those records is supposedly benign -- CCleaner will just help me delete those traces, right? But what if I tell you to stop monitoring me? And yet you don't? Am I going to TRUST that your monitoring is benign? No no no. I'm going to pull the PANIC BUTTON. You must must must STOP MONITORING ME!! GIVE ME MY PRIVACY BACK!

Active Monitoring is defaulted to ON when you download this release (despite previous versions having it turned OFF at the time the new release is installed). That's already unreasonable. Then, in order to PREVENT future Active Monitoring, you have to take THREE steps, yes 3, three, THREE! First, (a) deselect the option in the Advanced Options dialog of CCleaner, then (b) disable the Active Monitoring start-up item, BUT NOT DELETE IT (if you delete it, the next run of CCleaner will re-install it, DEFAULTED TO THE ON POSITION AGAIN!), (this deselection also can be done with CCleaner or with any of a number of other start-up-management utilities) and then (the shocker!) you still aren't yet done. That's because you CAN'T QUIT CCLEANER! It's already in Actively Monitoring mode (despite the fact that you didn't want it to do this, it nevertheless has started monitoring on its own) so it will NOT GO AWAY! You have to (c) use Task Manager or some other third-party utility to turn off CCleaner (which otherwise will continue to run and will continue to Actively Monitor despite steps (a) and (b) above, AND FURTHERMORE will re-set your start-up setting from off to on). Then (d) restart your computer. Wow, that's TOO MUCH to make an invasion of privacy go away. Try this: one click. Period. 

This is too difficult, and almost to the point of misleading. The present arrangement manages to "force" CCleaner to run in the background even when you go WAY out of your way to prevent it from doing so. I hope this was a mistake. (If instead it's a deliberate feature, designed to cause CCleaner to exist in the hidden-but-running state, unbeknownst to most typical users, secretly collecting their private information, then this would be the first time in my experience with Piriform that your company has acted so much like Microsoft that I would want to get rid of you if I could. That's not in typical Piriform character.) You've managed to set up your program so that the instant a user first uses it, the user is suddenly, unwittingly, and involuntarily permanently saddled with a pervasive and permanent, and yet potentially unwanted, monitor of 100% of that user's activity forever, a monitor that is essentially secret. This is the case unless the user is more than averagely informed about technical settings and about background processes. To rephrase: YOU'RE SPYING ON ME WITHOUT MY CONSENT EVEN AFTER I DEMAND THAT YOU DON'T DO IT. That's way way WAY uncool.

Suggestion: provide a QUIT button that actually ENDS CCleaner's activity; and provide an INSTANTANEOUS and EFFECTIVE way to disable the Active Monitoring, with ONE CLICK that will (1) end any presently ongoing monitoring AND ALSO will (2) disable any future monitoring from re-starting without user input. The present set-up is a subterfuge that implements invasions of my privacy directly against what I thought were my express wishes (by selecting certain more private settings) otherwise, because when I select those certain more private settings, they are not implemented transparently, but instead are controverted by other contradictory and misleading settings.

 

HEAR! HEAR! 

I unchecked that option a half-dozen times and every time I would reboot there it was, the damned thing was running again. No right-click to force close as you pointed out. Open, uncheck, rinse, repeat. Just a few moments ago I became really irritated with it. I don't have time to launch a formal investigation into every perceived bug in an application, so I decided to come straight to the source to see if this issue was unique to me before digging into it. I ran straight into this post without searching.

I couldn't have expressed my feelings about this situation any better than you. A company's practices are a direct reflection of their core principles, and one doesn't have to look too far to see the agenda here. Avast and Piriform are referred to as separate entities, so I will address them as such. This was not a mistake or miscalculation. This was not done for your benefit or mine, to protect us from the digital world as we know it. (<--- That will be their official stance) Both have been around for a long time and knew exactly what effect this would have. That's precisely why they didn't put anything about it in the release notes and have yet to make a statement. There's no excuse for it. Here's them describing themselves in the press release of the acquisition:

Quote

Avast Software (www.avast.com), maker of the most trusted mobile and PC security in the world, protects 230 million people and businesses with its security applications. In business for over 25 years, Avast is one of the early innovators in the security business, with a portfolio that includes security and privacy products for PC, Mac, Android and iOS, and premium suites and services for business. In addition to being top-ranked by consumers on popular download portals worldwide

Quote

AVG is a leading provider of software services to secure devices, data and people. AVG’s award-winning consumer portfolio includes internet security, performance optimization, location services, data controls and insights, and privacy and identity protection, for mobile devices and desktops.

That's rich isn't it? 2016 might have been a fun ride for some, but the rest of us have been on a long, long slide. Well, I'm getting off. I uninstalled that garbage as soon as I read your post. I make it a policy not to willingly run spyware so I showed CCleaner what the recycle bin looks like. I would have came here and called a turd a turd cliftonprince but you beat me to it. 

 

[LadyKeys]

Same thing happening on all my computers since the last update.  Now that I know it's a snoopy bug I'm going to remove CCleaner from all the computers - this is stupid.  I have Kaspersky Internet Security on all machines and that does a clean-up same as CCleaner - I just never used it because I liked CCleaner so much.  Not anymore.  Enough spying on people already!!!!!!!!

 

I joined this site just to post and read comments about this as I thought it was just me this was happening to.  I stopped it from starting up using msconfig but the minute systems are rebooted it comes back there and in my systray again, also MONITORING.  I uncheck, close the program, open it and it's checked again!

 

I'm done with CCleaner until this is fixed..............MAYBE.  I have Kaspersky to do the same thing.

[DeanH]

As all have said above, very disappointed in Piriform and the latest version of CCleaner which I have relied on for many years!

How do you go back a version?

[Nergal]

2 hours ago, DeanH said:

As all have said above, very disappointed in Piriform and the latest version of CCleaner which I have relied on for many years!

How do you go back a version?

Filehippo has the old versions

https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/history

[Hmm]

I agree, this is BS. I am now using an old version. The automatic and unable to disable the continuous monitoring is nothing less than intrusive and malicious. This was such a great product until the last update. 

[banCCLEANER2018]

same thing here, new version will not let you easily (if at all) disabled active monitoring, i uninstalled ccleaner after using it for 10 years.  

[PatrickM]

I thought I was the only one experiencing the problem, Mine was licensed, It's been irritating keep coming back monitoring on, keep killing it in the taskbar, It happen when I updated to latest version 3 days ago.

[Guest Stephen CCleaner]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your feedback. Please see this thread for the latest information on this topic:

[bbrigg]

On 26/07/2018 at 11:12, cliftonprince said:

One aspect of the latest release (2017-07-25) is VERY annoying to me. The Active Monitoring feature is EXTREMELY difficult to turn OFF. This is a feature that looks at EVERYTHING YOU DO and keeps records of it. Yes, the use of those records is supposedly benign -- CCleaner will just help me delete those traces, right? But what if I tell you to stop monitoring me? And yet you don't? Am I going to TRUST that your monitoring is benign? No no no. I'm going to pull the PANIC BUTTON. You must must must STOP MONITORING ME!! GIVE ME MY PRIVACY BACK!

Active Monitoring is defaulted to ON when you download this release (despite previous versions having it turned OFF at the time the new release is installed). That's already unreasonable. Then, in order to PREVENT future Active Monitoring, you have to take THREE steps, yes 3, three, THREE! First, (a) deselect the option in the Advanced Options dialog of CCleaner, then (b) disable the Active Monitoring start-up item, BUT NOT DELETE IT (if you delete it, the next run of CCleaner will re-install it, DEFAULTED TO THE ON POSITION AGAIN!), (this deselection also can be done with CCleaner or with any of a number of other start-up-management utilities) and then (the shocker!) you still aren't yet done. That's because you CAN'T QUIT CCLEANER! It's already in Actively Monitoring mode (despite the fact that you didn't want it to do this, it nevertheless has started monitoring on its own) so it will NOT GO AWAY! You have to (c) use Task Manager or some other third-party utility to turn off CCleaner (which otherwise will continue to run and will continue to Actively Monitor despite steps (a) and (b) above, AND FURTHERMORE will re-set your start-up setting from off to on). Then (d) restart your computer. Wow, that's TOO MUCH to make an invasion of privacy go away. Try this: one click. Period. 

This is too difficult, and almost to the point of misleading. The present arrangement manages to "force" CCleaner to run in the background even when you go WAY out of your way to prevent it from doing so. I hope this was a mistake. (If instead it's a deliberate feature, designed to cause CCleaner to exist in the hidden-but-running state, unbeknownst to most typical users, secretly collecting their private information, then this would be the first time in my experience with Piriform that your company has acted so much like Microsoft that I would want to get rid of you if I could. That's not in typical Piriform character.) You've managed to set up your program so that the instant a user first uses it, the user is suddenly, unwittingly, and involuntarily permanently saddled with a pervasive and permanent, and yet potentially unwanted, monitor of 100% of that user's activity forever, a monitor that is essentially secret. This is the case unless the user is more than averagely informed about technical settings and about background processes. To rephrase: YOU'RE SPYING ON ME WITHOUT MY CONSENT EVEN AFTER I DEMAND THAT YOU DON'T DO IT. That's way way WAY uncool.

Suggestion: provide a QUIT button that actually ENDS CCleaner's activity; and provide an INSTANTANEOUS and EFFECTIVE way to disable the Active Monitoring, with ONE CLICK that will (1) end any presently ongoing monitoring AND ALSO will (2) disable any future monitoring from re-starting without user input. The present set-up is a subterfuge that implements invasions of my privacy directly against what I thought were my express wishes (by selecting certain more private settings) otherwise, because when I select those certain more private settings, they are not implemented transparently, but instead are controverted by other contradictory and misleading settings.

 

This is correct. Avast/Piriform have released this as spyware. I'm gone after years of pro use.

[Hmm]

On 7/27/2018 at 10:42, Nergal said:

Filehippo has the old versions

https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/history

v5.44.6575 (26 Jun 2018) is not on filehippo. it's actually very hard to get. 

[Guest Stephen CCleaner]

1 hour ago, Hmm said:

v5.44.6575 (26 Jun 2018) is not on filehippo. it's actually very hard to get. 

We don't know why it is not available but we have asked for it to be reinstated.

[Kramy]

I just created Windows Firewall rules to block it, since I don't know what it's doing. Problem (mostly?) solved. Might make a startup script that runs 2 minutes after boot and TaskKill's CCleaner in case anything like this is ever tried again.

Edit:  Just make a new task run 1 minute after login, set it to Admin privs, start this action:

Run:
C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe

Arguments:
/IM CCleaner64.exe /f

Voila, problem solved.

[cliftonprince]

Thanks to all who responded, glad to know I'm not the crazy one.

It may be worth noting that my initial post now turns out to be inaccurate. Whereas I complained in that post that there were TOO MANY steps in CCleaner's settings and dialogs to disable CCleaner's Active Monitoring (I described three steps plus re-start), in fact there are NO steps which would do that. One CANNOT disable Active Monitoring via ANY settings in CCleaner, because (as others in this thread attest, above) CCleaner will re-enable Active Monitoring despite any steps to the contrary. One must depart from CCleaner and then either edit the register, or write a script, or do something else external to it, in order to circumvent Active Monitoring's re-establishment. I have uninstalled CCleaner.

Give Piriform their due, for, in response to these concerns, they have posted a link, which I followed and cut-pasted a bit ...

On 7/30/2018 at 10:36, Paul Piriform said:

• We will separate out Active Monitoring (junk cleaning alerts and browser cleaning alerts) and heartbeat (anonymous usage analytics) features in the UI and we will give you the ability to control these individually. You will have the options of enabling all, some or none of these functions, and this functionality will be uniquely controlled from the UI.
• We will take this opportunity to rename the Advanced Monitoring features in CCleaner to make their functions clearer.
• We will deliver these changes to the software in the coming weeks.

This in not the entirety of their statement. A lot of their statement implies the "why" rather than the "how" -- we make more investigations into the nature of user behavior, the internet is forever growing and changing, we keep records of your behavior only in benign manners in order to understand user needs for future updates, active monitoring reduces interaction and interface time, whatever, etc. etc.. You can find the link to it higher up in this thread and I recommend all should read Piriform's words from Piriform themselves rather than cut-pasted by me.

Well, I'm cynical now. I previously thought of CCleaner as one of the more up-front and decent pieces of software out there, and I hope I can go back to thinking of it that way after this particular kerfuffle. Looking forward to the announced changes being implemented. Until then, I feel very very burned, and will remain skeptical.

[Hmm]

20 hours ago, Kramy said:

I just created Windows Firewall rules to block it, since I don't know what it's doing. Problem (mostly?) solved. Might make a startup script that runs 2 minutes after boot and TaskKill's CCleaner in case anything like this is ever tried again.

Edit:  Just make a new task run 1 minute after login, set it to Admin privs, start this action:

Run:
C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe

Arguments:
/IM CCleaner64.exe /f

Voila, problem solved.

Glad this works for you, but it doesn't help those who don't know how to create a firewall rule with your script. 

[Hmm]

5 hours ago, cliftonprince said:

Well, I'm cynical now. I previously thought of CCleaner as one of the more up-front and decent pieces of software out there, and I hope I can go back to thinking of it that way after this particular kerfuffle. Looking forward to the announced changes being implemented. Until then, I feel very very burned, and will remain skeptical.

You have every reason to be cynical. Facebook got away with it, and for the most part, most people are fine with their invasion of privacy....until it adversely affects them. Eventually, government will step in, but that likely won't be in North America for a few more decades.

[Hmm]

21 hours ago, Stephen Piriform said:

We don't know why it is not available but we have asked for it to be reinstated.

It should be reinstated on piriform website though.

[rogerT42]

The simplest solution I found that has worked now for multiple re-boots is to use SysInternals Autoruns - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns   After starting Autoruns in the "Everything" tab, type ccleaner in the filter box and uncheck CCleaner Update in the Task Scheduler section.

[Augeas]

Yeah, yeah, we get it, we don't need six posts to tell us.

[Lepsios]

Just created an account to say that, as for many other users it seems, Ccleaner is banished from my computers until Pifiform provides a reliable solution to this mess.

It'll remain a dark spot in the history of a long trusted software, though.

 

Bye bye, Piriform.