I feel Norton of today is only interested in selling and not protecting our computers. The constant stream of nagware, no way to contact a live agent in the USA, because that is where I live, and I only speak and understand english. I have been with this company since Peter Norton started it many years ago. I believe it was around 1991.
So, if I have my VPN turned on why do I need all the crap you are trying to sell me? I am guessing no human from the norton company even ready this anyway, it is just a place to vent for fed up users like me.
So I am looking for a new AV company that will focus on computer safety, not greed. If anyone in the blog knows of such a company, please reply. Norton, your company may be making billions with your nagware, but I am not falling for it. I remember what you used to be.
I too have been using Norton since the DOS days. Since Symantec sold to Broadcoam, it seems the last vestiges of Peter Norton's vision have died off and been buried deeply in the upsell graveyard. Since then, my loyalty to the brand has slowly been dying from the torture of a thousand (nagware) cuts. I sat down this morning to accomplish a single task and was confronted with a pop-up to upgrade to their new browser (to which I had previously selected "do not show me again"). This was the final cut which snuffed out my last glimmer of loyalty. I now have spent almost four hours not accomplishing the task I set out to do in order to determine a suitable replacement. The following is what I have settled on for my needs.
1) McAfee - includes antivirus, firewall, and password manager. It also includes some other minor features which Norton360 does not. Some reviews rate it slightly higher than Norton, some slightly lower. The Plus Plan has an intro offer of $29.99 for 2 years. The site says this is a $95 savings. This equates to a regular annual price of $62.50.
2) IdentityGuard (identityguard.com/plans) - The Value Plan provides comparable protection from identity theft as Norton for an intro price of $6.67 per month. The site indicates this a 25% discount - regular price $8.99 per month, which equates to $107.88 annually.
3) EaseUS Todo Backup - Norton Ghost was not included in Norton 360, however, I have been interested in finding a replacement for some time. Symantec discontinued it in 2013. Legacy versions do not work on Windows 11. EaseUS Todo Backup has a free version which proports to be an effective replacement for Norton Ghost with similar functionality.
Conclusion: for a similar price point I can get similar protection. Hopefully this pans out. If I end up with satisfactory results, I will be pleased. And if, perchance, I end up with similar nagware in the process, I am still at parity with where I am now. Either way, NortonLifelock will no longer be getting my reward for perverting Peter Norton's vision.
You are so right! I had been using Norton since Peter Norton came out with Norton utilities for DOS. Too much crap now and you can’t focus on security. I’m dumping Norton when my subscription expires. They don’t care. They just want to upsell