Safety firm Norton is going through renewed criticism over its resolution to bundle a crypto miner with its antivirus service.
The characteristic was launched in June 2021, permitting Norton 360 subscribers to mine for Ether, the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum community. On the time, the transfer was criticized as an opportunistic try and capitalize on the crypto growth, no matter the environmental affect or the monetary threat to customers.
Now, Norton prospects have taken to Twitter to complain that the crypto miner is much tougher to uninstall than it must be. Others counsel it shouldn’t be put in on machines within the first place with out the express consent of the person.
Norton responds
The state of affairs went from unhealthy to worse after Norton replied to the authentic tweet (opens in new tab), mentioning that the crypto miner is “an opt-in characteristic solely” and isn’t enabled with out the person’s permission, which sparked a collection of indignant responses.
“If it’s opt-in, why is it put in by default and never detachable with out eliminating the entire antivirus software program?,” requested one Twitter person. Others, in the meantime, took concern with the condescending tone of the response from customer support, and instructed Norton ought to persist with its lane as a cybersecurity firm.
In a press release offered to The Register, Norton tried as soon as once more to clear up the confusion:
“Norton Crypto is an opt-in characteristic solely and isn’t enabled with out person permission. If customers have turned on Norton Crypto however not want to use the characteristic, it may be disabled by way of Norton 360 by quickly shutting off ‘tamper safety’ (which permits customers to switch the Norton set up) and deleting NCrpyt.exe out of your pc.”
TechRadar Professional requested Norton whether or not it can think about making the crypto miner an non-obligatory part or making the uninstall course of extra accessible to prospects with restricted technical information. The corporate responded solely not directly, with the identical assertion offered to different shops.
- Additionally try our lists of the perfect malware removing software program, greatest ransomware safety and greatest endpoint safety providers
Through The Register (opens in new tab)
