The problem was that the active monitoring refused to stay turned off, and the privacy settings were removed in the free version. Avast has stopped users from being able to quit the software.

There was an outcry and the company responded by saying: " Version 5.45 aimed at providing us with more accurate data that would help us to detect bugs more quickly and let us know which CCleaner features are being used and which aren't. The information which is collected through these new features is aggregated, anonymous data and only allows us to spot trends. This is very helpful to us for the purposes of improving our software and our customers’ experience. No personally identifiable information is collected."

Needless to say that was not considered good enough and users let out enough of a stink to force Avast to pull the upgrade.  In a statement the company said it had gone back to 5.44 and the outfit said that it was "currently working on separating out cleaning functionality from analytics reporting and offering more user control options which will be remembered when CCleaner is closed. We’re also creating a factsheet to share which will outline the data we collect, for which purposes and how it is processed ".

Avast has lost more than a few users following this controversy -- and past bad behavior -- and it will be interesting to see if it can win them back.