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| Company type | Private limited company |
|---|---|
| Founded | Germany (1999) |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Products | Adaware antivirus Lavasoft Digital Lock Lavasoft File Shredder Ad-Aware Web Companion Lavasoft Privacy Toolbox |
| Parent | Avanquest (Claranova)[1][2] |
| Website | www |
Adaware, previously known asLavasoft,[3] is asoftware development company that producesspyware andmalware detection software,[4] includingAdaware. It operates as a subsidiary of Avanquest, adivision ofClaranova.[2]
Adaware's headquarters are inMontreal, Canada, having previously been located inGothenburg, Sweden since 2002. Nicolas Stark and Ann-Christine Åkerlund established the company in Germany in 1999 with its flagship Adaware antivirus product. In 2011, Adaware was acquired by the Solaria Fund,[5] a private equity fund front for entrepreneurs Daniel Assouline and Michael Dadoun, who have been accused[6] of selling software that is available free, including Adaware antivirus prior to acquiring the company itself.
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| Adaware antivirus | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Adaware |
| Initial release | 1999; 27 years ago (1999) |
| Stable release | |
| Written in | C++,Visual Basic .NET |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Available in | Multilingual[8] |
| Type | Antivirus software,Adware,Spyware |
| License | Proprietary,Freeware |
| Website | www |
An anti-spyware and anti-virus software program, Adaware Antivirus, according to its developer, supposedly detects and removes malware,spyware andadware, computer viruses,dialers,Trojans, bots,rootkits,data miners,[citation needed] parasites,browser hijackers and tracking components.[9]
In the 2008 Edition, Lavasoft bundled Ad-Aware Pro and Plus for the first time with anantivirus scanner,[10] which used theAvira engine[11]and this arrangement continued for a few years.[12] Starting with Ad-Aware version 10, theBitdefender antivirus engine was used instead.[13][14][15]
According toPC World Magazine, an older version of Ad-Aware, the Anniversary Edition, could locate only 83.6% of malware in a comparative test carried out by the security firmAV-TEST.[16] It ran no such tests on the newest version. Neil J. Rubenking ofPCMag performed a lab test on version 8.3 and Ad-Aware scored 9.2 points, beating its previous best 9.1.[17]
In July 2013, Adaware Antivirus Free was listed as having been downloaded a total of 450 million times from the Lavasoft site, including over 387 million times fromDownload.com as of December 2014[update].[18] According to OPSWAT, in January 2015, Ad-Aware had less than 1% of market share globally.[19] Paid versions of the product are being competed from low-cost or free products, such asMicrosoft Security Essentials.[16]
The company was acquired in January 2011, as Lavasoft, by the Solaria Fund, a private equity fund,[5] front for Daniel Assouline and Michael Dadoun, key people of UpClick and Interactive Brands.[20] SC Magazine reported that Lavasoft had been acquired by the same entrepreneurs who have been accused of selling software that is available free to unwitting users under the guise of premium support,[21] including the free version of Lavasoft's security program prior to acquiring the company itself.[6] Security consultant Dancho Danchev has documented this controversy.[22]
Additionally, Danchev has reported in 2013 that Lavasoft was used to hide hard-to-uninstall programs into third-party software to trick the users in installing them, like in theK-Lite Codec Pack, and the Lavasoft Web Companion changed your browser without the user's permission. Although the company shields itself behind the complete legality[clarification needed] of bundled software and claims that their software is only used to fight malware, there are users who have branded their products as malware.[23]
In February 2015, it was reported byCERT Coordination Center, that a new security feature in Ad-Aware Web Companion was implemented with Komodia SSL Digestor, one of Komodia's public SDKs, the company behind theSuperfish security incident inLenovo machines.[24][25][26]