177 lines
5.9 KiB
HTML
177 lines
5.9 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta
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http-equiv="Content-type"
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content="application/xhtml+xml;charset=utf-8"
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/>
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<title>CCleaner — Spyware Watchdog</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../style.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class="case">
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<div class="nav"><a href="index.html">← Catalog</a></div>
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<div class="main">
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<img src="../images/ccleaner_logo.png" alt="CCleaner Logo" />
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<h1>CCleaner</h1>
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<p>
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CCleaner, developed by Piriform, is a utility program used to clean
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potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a
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computer.
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</p>
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<h2>Spyware Level: <span class="red">EXTREMELY HIGH</span></h2>
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<p>
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CCleaner is spyware that collects your personal information to
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advertise to you. It also sells your information to third parties so
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that they can advertise to you. It collects a huge amount of very
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personal information, like your
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<b><font color="red">physical location.</font></b> CCleaner uses the
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technique of privacy policy obfuscation where it provides one privacy
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policy for every single product its company offers, making it more
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difficult to know what parts of the privacy policy apply to which
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program.
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</p>
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<h3>CCleaner collects and sells user information to advertisers</h3>
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<p>
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CCleaner clearly shows in its privacy settings that it is collecting
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information about your computer and selling that information to
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advertisers:
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</p>
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<img
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class="screenshot"
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src="../images/ccleaner_privacy.png"
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alt="CCleaner privacy settings"
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/>
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<p>
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Image Source: <sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup>
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</p>
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<h3>CCleaner tracks a huge amount of personal information</h3>
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<p>
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If we look at the privacy policy, we can see that CCleaner reports the
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following<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup
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>:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>IP Address</li>
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<li>Unique User ID</li>
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<li>Operating System</li>
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<li>Other Avast Products installed</li>
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<li>
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<b><font color="red">physical location</font></b>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Beyond this, CCleaner is integrated with the following spyware
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platforms, which all collect their own sets of information:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Google Analytics</li>
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<li>Logentries</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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It would be very time-consuming to go through all of those privacy
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policies (especially because many of these are obfuscated), but it
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should be enough to understand that CCleaner is full of third party
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spyware, as well as first party spyware.
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</p>
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<h3>CCleaner sends you spam email</h3>
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<p>
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From the privacy policy<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup
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>:
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</p>
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<p>
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<i>
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"When we collect your email address, we may market our other
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products and services to you. You may choose to unsubscribe from
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future email marketing by following the instructions in the email."
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</i>
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</p>
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<h3>CCleaner tracks your physical location</h3>
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<p>
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According to the privacy policy, the CCleaner website tries to track
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your physical location.<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup>
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</p>
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<p>
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<i>
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"Our websites use cookies to acquire data that may be used to
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determine your physical location via your Internet Protocol address
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(“IP Address”) and automated geolocation techniques, or to acquire
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basic information about the computer, tablet, or mobile phone that
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you use to visit us."
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</i>
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</p>
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<p>
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<i>"location data"</i> is also mentioned when talking about the
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information that CCleaner itself collects about its users.
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</p>
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<h3>Past Security Flaws</h3>
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<p>
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In the past, CCleaner has been compromised and backdoors have been
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added to it.<sup><a href="#s1">[1]</a></sup>
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</p>
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</div>
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<hr />
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<div class="footer">
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<div class="sources">
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<h4>Sources:</h4>
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<ol>
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<li id="s1">
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<a
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href="https://www.ccleaner.com/news/blog/2017/9/18/security-notification-for-ccleaner-v5336162-and-ccleaner-cloud-v1073191-for-32-bit-windows-users"
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>
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Security Notification for CCleaner v5.33.6162 and CCleaner Cloud
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v1.07.3191 for 32-bit Windows users
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</a>
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<a
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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180816103218/https://www.ccleaner.com/news/blog/2017/9/18/security-notification-for-ccleaner-v5336162-and-ccleaner-cloud-v1073191-for-32-bit-windows-users"
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>[web.archive.org]</a
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>
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</li>
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<li id="s2">
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<a
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href="https://misdirectedrequest.wordpress.com/2018/06/04/ccleaner-privacy-issue/"
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>CCleaner Privacy Issue
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</a>
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<a
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href="http://web.archive.org/web/20180821215956/https://misdirectedrequest.wordpress.com/2018/06/04/ccleaner-privacy-issue/"
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>[web.archive.org]</a
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>
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<a href="http://archive.is/HJFBP">[archive.is]</a>
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</li>
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<li id="s3">
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<a href="http://www.ccleaner.com/about/privacy-policy"
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>What Happens to Your Data</a
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>
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<a
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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180816025428/https://www.ccleaner.com/about/privacy-policy"
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>[web.archive.org]</a
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>
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<a href="http://archive.is/HJFBP">[archive.is]</a>
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</li>
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</ol>
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</div>
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<hr />
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<b>This article was last edited on 8/21/2018</b>
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<!--Dont change-->
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<p>
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If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us
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at the git repo on
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<a href="https://codeberg.org/shadow/SpywareWatchdog">Codeberg</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be
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accepted.
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</p>
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<a href="../LICENSE.txt"
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><img class="icon" src="../images/cc0.png" alt="CC0 License"
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/></a>
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<!--Dont change-->
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</div>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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