Yes, another program shipped with telemetry – that’s what we love, oh wait it’s exactly the opposite. While telemetry is something you can’t escape from and a ‘new’ hype (it all started with Google and the so-called ‘tracking’) everyone seems to do the same now, Mozilla, Avast, Microsoft & Co. The bitter pill is that you basically have only three option like 1) Switch to another program 2). Disable or block telemetry 3). Just live with it. For most people blocking or using another program is the best solution so far.
What happened?
CCleaner now is shipped with telemetry (default opted-in).
Your privacy is very important to us and we commit to ensuring the continued confidentiality and security of all data we collect and process. We also require that any and all parties which have access to our data adhere to strict security standards and best industry practices. This protects your privacy, whether you are an EU resident or not.
As part of this commitment, we’ve updated our Privacy Policy and added a new ‘Privacy’ tab into our software. If you’re a CCleaner user, in this tab you can adjust your privacy settings. Privacy settings are unavailable for Free users as we do not collect any personal identifiable information, so Free users are essentially anonymous.
So what CCleaner (Avast) did now in his latest program update, they give us another option which is really something which I won’t tolerate, free users, get fewer telemetry options to opt-out from than Pro users. The telemetry option isn’t really visible in the Installer or clearly mentioned.
As you can see here, Free users have fewer options.
Downloads
The download links never change, unless a new version was announced and then you simply replace e.g. 543 in the URL with 544 etc. in order to get the latest updates.
Version History
https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/version-history
Standard
https://download.ccleaner.com/ccsetup543.exe
Professional Edition (Old Setup UI):
https://download.ccleaner.com/pro/ccsetup543_pro.exe
https://download.ccleaner.com/update/ccleaner/ccupdate543_pro.exe
Professional Edition (New Setup UI):
https://download.ccleaner.com/ccsetup543pro.exe
Technician Edition:
https://download.ccleaner.com/te/ccsetup543_te.exe
Business Edition:
https://download.ccleaner.com/be/ccsetup543_be.exe
https://download.ccleaner.com/be/ccsetup543_be_trial.exe
Business Edition MSI x64:
https://download.ccleaner.com/be/ccsetup543_x64_be.msi
Business Edition MSI x86:
https://download.ccleaner.com/be/ccsetup543_x86_be.msi
Portable
https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download/portable/downloadfile
Alternatives
BleachBit is used by Bruce Schneier and other security experts, it’s open source and also cleans the essential stuff, however it doesn’t have as many options and gimmicks as CCleaner but you should ask yourself if you like to support such people which might even selling your data while you already paid money for it (Pro version).
Conclusion
CCleaner (since owned by Avast) went to shit, the latest two versions I tested were bugged as hell and it seems Avast like to get more telemetry for no reasons. Why does a cleaning program which his only purpose is to remove Cookies, temp data etc needs Telemetry at all? Isn’t the forum not just enough in order to report some problems?
The program itself was fine until Avast destroyed it, the code is very strange there still years old bugs which aren’t fixed which you would expect by such big companies like Avast/CCleaner (Piriform).
I would have no problem with it when CCleaner would offer the same options for all users and when it would be properly documented if they sell the collected data to third-parties or not, that’s unclear from the privacy policy.
Retrospective
- They get already money with Pro/Enterprise/Network- and Professional versions
- They also accept Donations (why?) just buy the Pro version shouldn’t this be enough when data are already collect (by default)?
- There is no clear warning while installing CCleaner that telemetry is been collected and submitted, you have to go to Options > Privacy to disable it. It’s right now also questionable if disabling it really stops only the data submission or if the program still collects useless information on your HDD/SSD. The program code on this is messy and needs to be reviewed.
I recommend to block CCleaner with a firewall (which also [still]) bypasses the entire activation mechanism (which communicates with license.piriform.com) – in other words, you can use a blacklisted license to activate the product. This is since 4 years not fixed and still works.
Update
v5.43.6522 (25 May 2018)
– Amended Privacy menu in CCleaner Free to include opt out of sharing usage data with third parties for analytics purposes
Due to the pressure from the community, they changed their policy, but keep in mind that you need to uncheck everything after each update because by default it sends telemetry.
CK’s Technology News 
4 responses to “CCleaner 5.43.6520 adds Telemetry into it’s Cleaner Program”
Nowadays using your computer without a firewall would be a nightmare.
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I think the biggest protection is your router on not the OS. Even if there are network related leaks, if the firmware of your router would give you bunch of options to filter most things it would’t matter mutch if the average joe didn’t propberly configured his os. The only problem is that none of the firmwares I saw using the maximum settings by default for several reasons and this creates another configuration problem, how should the avarage joe know what he should set in his router?
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sneaky
if the program is not updated to the latest version it will now close
ugly
I think it’s time to not use it anymore
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It’s also questionable if anyone needs it, CCLeaner comes with a lot of function which most user never us, or they prefer better solutions.
Overall you can create a simple batch file or powershell script, import the winapp2.ini and get the same. CCleaner is just more compfortable, that’s all.
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