Build version 5.1.7.121 component package 1.0.1289

[Max-H]

Thanks for the update but, STOP with the In-App advertising within the paid version. It starts to look like a free version. 

[brad03]

i agree we were promised that they would take the VPN out of the premium version now this... I strongly disagree to what you guys are doing. I have respect for Malwarebytes as a company but this latest update had me cringe.... The advertisements in your paid products have now gone to far in my opinion. 

Edited July 21 by brad03

[digmorcrusher]

Hmm, I uninstalled MBAM about a week ago to test something else. I won't be reinstalling if my paid version gets ads.

[Porthos]

8 minutes ago, digmorcrusher said:

. I won't be reinstalling if my paid version gets ads.

This is the new complaint. Users don't have to click it if they do not subscribe to it.

Edited July 21 by Porthos

[msherwood]

Hey everyone. Thanks for starting this convo and sharing your thoughts on our new Identity feature. Please allow me to share a bit more about what's going on with our products and what we're attempting to do - and then would love to hear your thoughts on it and what you think we should do.

As you've probably noticed, over the last year or so we've been expanding our products and features (e.g. acquiring Cyrus, launching identity theft protection, launching Digital Footprint Portal) in an attempt to provide more than just AV to our users. We've decided to offer most of these features inside a single app / experience (aka MB5) as trying to manage a handful of these apps isn't ideal for most users.

Our vision for the app is that we've got four main pillars: security, privacy, identity and Trusted Advisor. And then within each of those, a variety of amazing features that help users secure both their devices as well as themselves and their data.

We totally understand that all of these features won't be for everyone and we're not expecting every user to get everything. However, we do want to showcase these features and even advertise them a bit to help users understand we have more than just AV to help keep them secure. For example, one of our main strengthens as a company and brand is that many people know us as being the go to solution for scanning and remediating malware - which is awesome - but it doesn't help them see other ways we can help when it comes to more modern threats like scams, data breaches, protecting your privacy, etc.

One of the ways we've been thinking about showcasing these features on our desktop app is on the dashboard (like VPN) vs left nav (like Identity). Imagine a version in the future where the dashboard you see today becomes more of a true dashboard with relevant info and actions that allow you to quickly understand what's going on and take action. Also in this same future version, imagine the left nav has Home | Security | Privacy | Identity | Settings as options where when you click on these, you get more catered security, privacy, and identity experiences and options. And then if you're just using our premium AV offer, the privacy and identity sections would still be on the left nav but when you clicked into them, we'd showcase the features you currently don't have (and hope that some want to learn more and even upgrade).

I'm hoping the above helps clarify what's currently going on with the app and what we're thinking about doing next.

As you're sharing here, some of our users aren't wanting all of these features or maybe just want a few or maybe even just one. It would be great to hear your thoughts on the above as well as what you suggest we do to make your Malwarebytes app and experience as you want it.

So, let's hear it!

[digmorcrusher]

I'll bite. Your doing all this for one reason only, to make money. Its just my opinion but I do not like my AV to be complicated or bloated with a bunch of nonsense I don't want such as a password manager or VPN. And I absolutely abhor any advertising in a paid program. The reason I stopped using Emsisoft is because of the management console they implemented which made doing anything overly complicated. Your going in a direction I do not like, however, I'm sure you wouldn't be doing it if your research has not shown that the majority of your users are ok with it. I'm sure they will absolutely pay more for shiny new features they may or may not need. Best of luck.

[msherwood]

4 hours ago, digmorcrusher said:

I'll bite. Your doing all this for one reason only, to make money. Its just my opinion but I do not like my AV to be complicated or bloated with a bunch of nonsense I don't want such as a password manager or VPN. And I absolutely abhor any advertising in a paid program. The reason I stopped using Emsisoft is because of the management console they implemented which made doing anything overly complicated. Your going in a direction I do not like, however, I'm sure you wouldn't be doing it if your research has not shown that the majority of your users are ok with it. I'm sure they will absolutely pay more for shiny new features they may or may not need. Best of luck.

Thanks for your blunt feedback. You’re right, we are a business and are looking to grow. However, this isn’t our only goal as we still want to offer a variety of solutions for free and/or at a lower cost.

How do you think we can make an app that serves both your needs (of mostly a no nonsense AV) while also offering other features for those that want them? 

What changes would you make? 

[Max-H]

Thanks Michael for the explanation of MWB's corporate policy. Understandable but, I agree with digmorcrusher. 
For me, I have Proton VPN, ControlD DNS, ProtonPass(incl. email check). Adding features is fine, but not as paid push options in the already paid version.
When you really have to, make a '(Paid) Upgrades' link(no big orange button) in the 'About Malwarebytes' screen. Probably a no-go from a commercial point of view but neither is a growing aversion against MWB.

Edited July 24 by Max-H

[Dave77]

12 hours ago, msherwood said:

" imagine the left nav has Home | Security | Privacy | Identity | Settings as options where when you click on these, you get more catered security, privacy, and identity experiences and options. And then if you're just using our premium AV offer, the privacy and identity sections would still be on the left nav but when you clicked into them, we'd showcase the features you currently don't have (and hope that some want to learn more and even upgrade)."

 

The trouble is that I know what I want from Malwarbytes - just Security - exactly what I got with Malwarebytes 4.x

I don't want a bloated install with options that I will not use. Perhaps offer a 'lite' option during installation for those who know exactly what they want.

[bjm]

8 hours ago, msherwood said:

as we still want to offer a variety of solutions for free and/or at a lower cost.

Just my $0.02
advertise Malwarebytes offerings where you offer Malwarebytes services for free: 
for example: Malwarebytes Free, Forums, Labs, Newsletter and social media. 
We all LUV Malwarebytes Free, Forums, Labs, Newsletter and social media and I'd opt-in to Malwarebytes marketing emails. 

 

 

[digmorcrusher]

10 hours ago, msherwood said:

Thanks for your blunt feedback. You’re right, we are a business and are looking to grow. However, this isn’t our only goal as we still want to offer a variety of solutions for free and/or at a lower cost.

How do you think we can make an app that serves both your needs (of mostly a no nonsense AV) while also offering other features for those that want them? 

What changes would you make? 

If your going to have a program with a bunch of features that are included then the only way would be to offer the user a choice as to what they can install the first time they use MB. For example have a box where the user can opt out of installing the VPN or Identity Protection etc. When  they do this the gui show not show these features, not show any ads for these features, or be configurable where they can remove these features themselves. This way users can choose as to how bloated or lean their MB program is.

[sheldon]

IMHO advertising via the app is getting old.   I only want security projection and nothing else.  Maybe just advertise new add-ons once or twice at startup.  Maybe allow people to op-out from this feature.

[Max-H]

19 hours ago, digmorcrusher said:

If your going to have a program with a bunch of features that are included then the only way would be to offer the user a choice as to what they can install the first time they use MB. For example have a box where the user can opt out of installing the VPN or Identity Protection etc. When  they do this the gui show not show these features, not show any ads for these features, or be configurable where they can remove these features themselves. This way users can choose as to how bloated or lean their MB program is.

Then MWB will block/erase itself due to advertising 😉.

[AdvancedSetup]

15 hours ago, sheldon said:

IMHO advertising via the app is getting old.   I only want security projection and nothing else.  Maybe just advertise new add-ons once or twice at startup.  Maybe allow people to op-out from this feature.

 

Not sure where the old comes from. Perhaps tiring I'd agree but myself I find more and more applications with both offerings, marketing, and outright Ads. There is a big difference between all of them in my opinion. Adobe and Corel both slam you with this all of these features weekly almost non stop. Many of my other programs have it too.

Even Windows 11 itself is adding what I consider Advertising and Marketing directly into the core OS. They're also adding untested, unknown, AI to the core OS, so the ideas that it's getting "old" doesn't seem to pan out from where I stand as a personal user in computing now over 35 years.

I don't know the ultimate outcome here but I'd vote for options in the UI for features where one could turn them on or off as they see fit. Regardless of which route the company does take I'm sure it will be a huge undertaking and will take a long time, but the good part is management is here and responsive. The other software I have there are no managers, directors or anyone else in a position of power replying or caring about the product issues.

 

 

[FetzBox22]

In my opinion, keep Malwarebytes light.

You can offer anything in the app, but please, don´t install it right away.

Update the app or install it - if the user wants it.

[msherwood]

Hey again. Thanks so much for everyone's thoughts and ideas on this topic. I truly appreciate that we can have this open and direct conversation with all of you. For real, keep the feedback coming in!

Okay, here's what we're thinking. We're going to continue with our plan to incorporate the Identity module in our products and you'll see this start to show up next week and beyond. As some of you have mentioned, many of our customers are asking for this and we want to ensure we help them understand more than just traditional AV threats and then how best to stay safe. 

Also, we hear you loud and clear that some of you want options to customize your experience. I don't have specifics on how or when we'll do this, but do want to share this is something we're going to actively research and try and figure out. One potential route we might take is offering a setting like "Show VPN features [ on | off ]" or maybe "Show Identity features [ on | off ]" and then disabling this would hide said features. But again, we need to research this more and make quite a bit of changes to pull this off - and then weigh that against all of the other goodness we're working on. :)

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. 

[digmorcrusher]

17 minutes ago, msherwood said:

One potential route we might take is offering a setting like "Show VPN features [ on | off ]" or maybe "Show Identity features [ on | off ]" and then disabling this would hide said features.

This is a good idea. However the main point of contention, for myself, is having all these features contained in a single app. This means that people will have to install these features even if they don't want them. You should never have to install something you don't want or need. Not sure how you would get around this other than having checkboxes upon installation as to what you want to install or seperate programs which it seems you do not want to do.

[Phxflyer]

Finally got around to reading this. Late answer but I hope it is pertinent to MB.

I was a long time Norton user. I finally dumped them for MB when they decided to become a program built for everyone with multiple needs with many added functions that were security related but not needed for the reason I was a Norton user. For the antivirus protection.

MB was a clean program and did the one thing I wanted. If you think your users want these added "functions" may I suggest you advertise on your website or by taking out ads on the web. Please keep the MB program "clean" and not junked up with extras. Start a new program if you really think people want and/or need additional features.

[DJDANY]

price for upgrade it is very high !

i cant test... Malwarebytes Total 

[Triple Helix]

I don't care I just ignore the ads as I don't need a VPN or Identity Protection. Again that's just me...