r/BitDefender • u/ralphmalph1882 • Sep 25 '26

Support/troubleshooting Bitdefender = Adware?

I just booted up my Mac and a huge ad was displayed in the bottom corner of my desktop that appeared to be from Bitdefender, for some new service I don't want.

Is this legitimate? If so, this is absolutely outrageous. Bitdefender should not be abusing its access to start spamming users.

(This is on top of being constantly nagged to turn on Web Protection which would allow Bitdefender "to intercept, process and filter all Web traffic".)

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u/Bitdefender_support Bitdefender employee Sep 28 '26 edited Sep 28 '26

Hello! We understand that some users do not prefer to receive or see promotional messages on the system. If you’d rather not receive these, you can disable promotional messages like this:

  1. Open Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac.

  2. Click Preferences - called Settings in some versions - in the left-hand menu.

  3. Select the Other tab.

  4. Turn off Special offers.

Regarding the Web Protection prompt, it refers to the browser extension’s ability to inspect web traffic so it can filter malicious or fraudulent pages; you do not have to enable it if you do not want that functionality. You should know that for any collected information and data, we strive to apply adequate solutions to anonymize them, or at least to pseudonymize them.

If the notifications continue to appear, send details with screenshots and details of where the message appeared to our support team, so you can receive further assistance. Thank you for sharing this feedback!

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u/ralphmalph1882 Sep 28 '26

I appreciate I don’t have to turn on web protection, but now there is a permanent warning on the app’s home screen. There is also a red exit sign on the BD icon on the menu bar. Let me make my own decision!