Chrome installed automatically without consent

Hi Mark. By now you may have realised that no matter how simply you explain this situation the support staff at AVG either don't understand or are being deliberately dishonest. I'd prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it seems pretty clear that they are not answering questions on this topic with any authority or knowledge whatsoever. So for your benefit and to help you troubleshoot this support issue here are some facts:

If you already have AVG installed, version updates occur automatically and without user interraction. During the update process the user does NOT have an option to make any choices including the choice to install Google software, which AVG have opted you in to by default, without your consent or knowledge. The version update occurs invisibly and because by default the Google software option is already selected on your behalf by AVG, you get Google chrome installed by default. Additionally you get no choice in how the Google software installs and therefore it also selects Chrome as the system's default browser.

The second issue which arises is in relation to support. When you clearly report to support staff that the upgrade happened without your knowledge, consent or control and that the installation (and configuration) of the Google software also occurred without your knowledge, consent, or control you get generic responses from support staff which are INCORRECT and patronizing. This suggests that support staff are either ignorant of the upgrade process or that they are deliberately being dishonest about it and shifting the blame to the user. The situation is baffling because all version upgrades initiate without user consent or control and suuport staff know this to be true. Normal program updates can be controlled to some extent, but version upgrades are out of the user's hands and are fully automated. They have been for years, so this situation is not new. What is new is the Google software which piggy-backs the version upgrade.

Now what is truly frustrating is that even after explaining this MULTIPLE times to support staff they still adhere to the same old tired LIE that it was the user who installed the Google software. Unless or until support staff aknowledge that they are either misinformed or poorly-trained in regards to this matter, users will continue to have their valuable time wasted on support forums with irrelvant answers. In the meantime Google and AVG have successfully infiltrated your computer with Chrome which is widely considered to be intrusive and malicious software which gives scant regard to your personal privacy and monitors the online activity of you and your family or fellow workers.

For AVG (which is supposed to help keep your system secure) to secretly force upon you a Google application (which has no regard for your security) completely undermines the entire purpose of installing security software in the first place. Now, there are only two possible reasons for this:

1: AVG simply messed up when coding their version upgrade and have not trained their support staff accordingly to respond to this glaringly obvious error.

2: AVG were completely aware of what they created and the entire purpose was to push the Google software on to customers for the pusrpose of profiteering.

I'd like to believe it is the first reason, however since I (and many others) have repeatedly been fobbed-off by support staff who appear to simply dodge the question (or ignore its content) my suspicion that it is the second reason has steadily grown. Either way, this is a question of poor business ethics and has been handled terribly by AVG in the public arena. I have been confidently recommending AVG software to my IT clients for almost two decades and have installed it on many hundreds of new computers. I would now consider it immoral to do so. Thanks for your time, and best wishes finding a replacement product.