Kaspersky has finally launched its free antivirus software after a year-and-a-half of testing it in select regions. While the software was only available in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, China and in Nordic countries during its trial run, Kaspersky is releasing it worldwide. The free antivirus doesn't have VPN, Parental Controls and Online Payment Protection its paid counterpart offers, but it has all the essential features you need to protect your PC. It can scan files and emails, protect your PC while you use the web and quarantine malware that infects your system.
The company says the software isn't riddled with advertisements like other free antivirus offerings. Instead of trying to make ad money off your patronage, Kaspersky will use the data you contribute to improve machine learning across its products. The free antivirus will be available in the US, Canada and most Asia-Pacific countries over the next couple of days, if it isn't yet. After this initial release, the company will roll it out in other regions from September to November.
Source:
Kaspersky launches its free antivirus software worldwide
(Score: 1) by pipedwho on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:55PM (5 children)
So they want to scan your email contents, your software catalog (and how often/when you use each piece of software), any network activity (sites you access and what you download), and probably all disk accesses. Then send all this information back to their servers. All this for free, without having to pay you anything!
And, just to be sure, it'll make sure that there are no (other) trojans on your machine?
I wonder if it also comes with free life time backups and a dedicated pipe between the Kaspersky data center and the Kremlin?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @10:38PM (2 children)
Would you feel better about it if they charged you for it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:25AM (1 child)
Yes, because if I paid them, then there is a better chance of the authorities arresting them for fucking me over.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:32AM
In your dreams.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:51AM
These guys must work on a different definition of "contribute" than I do. I think they speak Microsoft-ees over there.
OTOH, didn't google do the same? Their voice reco was totally built from contributed voice samples with Google Voice answering software. The end-ran the biggest voice reco patent holders in the world, and it worked in each successive language they pointed it at.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @01:53AM
They say that it "doesn’t come cut with all the usual nonsense like advertising-oriented user-habit tracking and confidentiality infringements." But suppose, for the sake of argument, that's a lie. If you're running Windows, why would you have a problem with telemetry? If you're not running Windows, you don't need this.