If Norton is moving their protection to the Web using browser extensions then it will not be a useful product any more. Not everyone lives on the Web and many people use e-mail, which is a potential phishing magnet, heavily.
Norton's key competency is computer security. If they are changing the way they operate to force me to install browser extensions then they are no longer the product I have come to know and trust.
As for the November patch, my Norton stays updated so I should have it but the warnings and sometimes the URL hijacks continue to occur.
Do you know if the other Internet security suites are going in the same direction?
I will start the painful process of evaluating new products. None that I have seen cover as many systems as Norton does at a comparable price. Which ones have you evaluated?
See bjm_s image in Bill_H's thread Internet Security at Risk Ignore Not Working in that thread about the More Options | Don't Remind Me Again setting that might stop your pop-ups.
I found the "Special Offers" option and turned it off. As you have hinted, I don't have much faith this will work.
Norton is famous for its shady marketing tactics. Popping red alerts because my browser extensions have not been installed is fear mongering, plain and simple. Hijacking a link and taking me to a page where I can install those extensions is fear mongering....
Hi BackupBob:
I can't see the image of your pop-up, but if you are seeing "Browsing at Risk" warnings because the Norton Safe Web browser extension is not installed then Norton added a "fix" to v22.19.9.63 in Nov 2019 that allowed users to permanently disable that warning. See bjm_s image in Bill_H's thread Internet Security at Risk Ignore Not Working in that thread about the More Options | Don't Remind Me Again setting that might stop your pop-ups.
You should also read Norton employee Gayathri_R's recent 27-May-2020 post in Web Protection Definitions Not Updating about how all Web Protection and AntiPhishing functions in the main Norton product are being migrated over to Norton Safe Web, so going forward there will be an even stronger push for users to installthis browser extension. I've posted my concerns about Norton Safe Web and privacy issues related to use of data collected by third-party partners <here> in Bill_H's thread and don't want Norton Safe Web installed in my Firefox ESR browser, so I've removed Norton from my Win 10 machine for this and all the many other reasons posted <here> by DavidCoffield.
You may be correct about the search engine. Norton presents it as their solution, implying you should install it.
In the past they were installing the Ask toolbar. Ask was never very good, even before they fired Jeeves. For example, I had to search for a piece of malware I was dealing with. Duck Duck Go found replies from several search engines, including Ask. The others told me this package was so bad that Satan's brother was afraid of it (well, not really but you get the idea). Ask found the Website for the package and reviews of how well it worked.
Many malware producers have a supposedly legitimate purpose and most times the user is unaware the package has been installed. Remember Gator Wallet? It was a password manager that appeared mysteriously on millions of computers. I found one running ten instances of Gator simultaneously.
When a company such as Norton / Symantec puts profits before integrity we have a problem. I applaud Symantec for cleaning up Norton. It used to be a resource hog and difficult to maintain. Now it runs well with little maintenance, except fending off demands to install their tool bar. I cannot applaud for shifting their business model from professional service provider to marketing.
I will wait for Symantec to do the right thing and stop the sleazy marketing, but I don't think Satan's brother will be asking for a sweater any time soon.
At least, according to to FAQs at Norton Fighter 25's posted link, the Norton Safe Web extension doesn't change your default search engine to Norton Safe Search.
No, the Norton Safe Web extension does not modify your search engine preference. We do have a separate extension called Norton Safe Search that does send you to our customized search engine.
I'm not convinced that either extension is anything that I'd have any interest in using. It might be another story for newbies.
I found the "Special Offers" option and turned it off. As you have hinted, I don't have much faith this will work.
Norton is famous for its shady marketing tactics. Popping red alerts because my browser extensions have not been installed is fear mongering, plain and simple. Hijacking a link and taking me to a page where I can install those extensions is fear mongering.
That brings up another problem. If turning off "Special Offers" really does resolve the problem then Norton is acknowledging that all of their fear mongering has nothing to do with security, only with lining their pockets. When marketers take over a good company nothing good will happen. Our focus as customers changes from that of a client needing a service to one of a demographic to be marketed to. The two roles are incompatible.
As for the Web extensions themselves, Norton is asking me to switch from Google to their search engine and to make theirs my home page. I will be having none of that, thank you. That is what Norton is supposed to prevent. As for the quality of their search engine, if it is still "Ask" than it is less than useless and I would question the sanity of anyone who recommended installing the Ask toolbar, no matter how it is branded.
I just checked that feature and saw that I had set it to OFF ages ago. However I too see those annoying Norton popups all the time. Let us know how it works out for you after a week.