Why am I getting ads in paid teamviewer?

FakeName

Yeah, if they send a marketing email once in a while maybe that would be OK.  But having ads for the 75 ancillary products that they keep spitting out, or sales for 50% off if you spend $8000 is just annoying. I agree fully.  But hey, there might be a legit fix, so I'm gonna roll with that.

pcurb1928

As someone who filed a similar ticket a few years back, the ads did stop... for about 6 months, then started up again.  As soon as a vendor offers a similar featureset without the ads, we'll be switching, because of these ads and poor support.

AK111

Hi @Esther  and thanks for your assistance with this.

Can you please clarify one important point: is it Teamviewer's official company policy to send ads to paying customers or is it not and these ads being shown to me and other paying users on this thread are a Teamviewer techical issue?

Which one is it? Company policy or technical problem affecting a few users?

A candid and open response would be appreciated so we can evaluate as your customers whether we are prepared to continue with our subscriptions.

Esther

Hi all,

Thank you for your honest feedback.

Please rest assured the Community team and I appreciate the time our users spend in providing the feedback.

I am trying to provide you with answers to your concerns as good as I can:

Let me start with a quick statement: The original topic of this thread from 2018 is talking about an ad that has been presented to some customers by mistake. This mistake has been resolved within a few days back in Oct/Nov 2018 and my initial reply is referring to that.

What we are now talking about are In-Product offerings that are aiming to offer our existing customers advantages and enhancements to their current license setup.

If you do not wish to take advantage of the offers provided, each PopUp contains a Do-Not-Show-this message again button. As @JellyAhHa stated correctly earlier, this button refers to the current campaign and not to any future campaigns.

However - there is a way to get also future campaigns removed and it is as I and others stated already via submitting a ticket.

Therefore coming back to the three points @e5rzhertdshz mentioned above:

1. It is about security. In this case: data protection - as you would need to share some personal data with the service team to get the popups removed completely.
2. Personally, I would not call it non-sense ? but I understand if you do not want to enhance your current subscription with any further services. In this case, we are coming back to the topic I recommended before: Submit a ticket and share the needed information with the service team and they´ll remove the PopUps for your account.
3. As we would need to handle each case individually, we do need separate support tickets, and each one of them will solve the case for a single customer who feels that the PopUps are not needed.

Please understand that I can't and won't make any statements on the business strategy of TeamViewer nor any other company. If you disagree with TeamViewer's approach to offer its services to existing customers, it is ok. We do not always have to agree with everything.

But - as some of you may know me already, of course, I took the feedback with me internally and talked to the responsible teams. They promised me to work on the current opt-out process and make it a full self-opt-out. As this requires some developing efforts, it will take some time, but it will come.

I am grateful that there are places like this community where customers and users can raise their opinion, provide feedback, and help a company to become better in the future.

In this sense: Thanks for being a member of our Community and have a great day,
Esther

AK111

Hi @Esther  and thanks for the follow up. I am going to summarize your answer below because it needs further clarity . So I am taking these 3 points 1-3 as accurate, but please do correct me as needed:

1) It is Teamviewer's offical company policy to send ads/campaigns  to paying customers

2) Currently the only way to opt-out of all ads / campaigns is to submit  a support ticket

3)  Your development team is now working on an opt-out process

Let me offer some additonal comments @Esther :

A. Please stop telling us we can click to end the current "campaign". Everyone here has aready told you that is not what want - we want a complete stop to these ads/campaigns.

B. Please refer me to the specific section of Teamviewer privacy policy or other legal agreement  that I agreed to when I subscribed that states Teamviewer may advertise to me. This is an important point - you may want to ask your legal department. Please note I am not asking you to disclose Teamviwer corporate strategy or other internal information. I am asking you to refer us to Teamviewer's public policies, privacy policies or other legal agreements.

C. You are only making things worse by calling these ads "promotions" - they are ads plain and simple and it makes Teamviewer look misleading and evasive for you to say otherwise.

D. It's great news the development team is working on an opt-out process. I can't think of a major online platform that does not offer this so this is welcome and long overdue.

I and many users love the product. We are not loving Teamviewer the company and it's ridiculous policy of spamming its paying customers.

Esther

Hi and good morning AK111,

Thanks for getting back to me and for your feedback. It is great to hear that you love our software.

After checking internally, I am coming back to your question in your comment B. about the specific section within the Teamviewer Privacy Policy:

1. Please refer to our Product Privacy Policy under C.VIII in connection with D.VIII.
2. You might also find the information here useful: General Privacy Policy under C.VI.2 in connection with D.VI.2

Here is the link to the Privacy Policy for your convenience: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/privacy-policy/

Regarding the points in your summary, I need to add, that after reviewing the Privacy policy it is also possible to opt-out by sending an email to privacy@teamviewer.com. 

I hope this information helps.

Thanks and best,

Esther

AK111

Hi @Esther  and many thanks for checking this. It is very helpful.

It's great to know opt-out can be achieved with a simple email to privacy@teamviewer.com. I swnt that email and am waiting for a response. I am sure you will find this information useful for advising other community users.

valkyriebiker

Completely agree with @AK111  and others complaining here!

@Esther, I'm pleased to read your comment that TV is working on a full self opt-out for promo messages. We'll see if/when that comes to pass, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.

To throw in my opinion on advertising: If I have an unmet need and TV offers a solution to it then I will find it on my own. I don't need a barrage of promo spam suggesting products/services that I have expressed no desire for. When I/we click "don't show me this again", TV as a company can be quite sure that what virtually all of us really mean is "quit pestering me with ads" and not "I don't need this advertised service but please do feel free to show me more ads later on".

I've been a paid TV user for over ten years. Like others, I love TV and it does what I need better than darned near every other solution I've looked at. But please tell your bosses that abusing their (paying!) customers in this manner is bad juju!

It's like Microsoft. My I.T. consulting company uses lots of MS products so, like TV, it's unlikely I'll ever leave them, either. But I intensely dislike MS for reasons that could fill volumes. Please don't give me reasons to hate TV as well.

In the mean time, I'll open a support ticket to have advertising removed from my account. At least now I know that's possible.

thanks.

R00tKit

After getting disrupted again multiple times in-between teamviewer sessions, I bit the bullet and played along; I just sent an e-mail to "opt-out" to privacy@teamviewer.com.

I also let them know what I think of their business practices, and pointed them to this forum topic.

I will let you know how this goes.

JellyAhHa

For the attention of @Esther and anyone else who's upset has led them to this busy discussion: 

I too "bit the bullet" like @AK111 and went out of my way to send an explicit email "simply" to privacy@teamviewer.com - but the process wasn't as simple as one would imagine. 

I emailed, "Please unsubscribe my TeamViewer account from all advertisements, both third-party ads as well as ads and promos for TeamViewer products and services." 

The reply acknowledged and accepted my request, but I sensed they didn't appreciate the specificity of my need, so I sent a followup, "I’d just like to check that this will prevent any and all ads being presented to me within the TeamViewer app? (I am on a commercial license)." 

I was then told for that to happen, I'd need to supply the TeamViewer ID's from each computer I use with my account. - I'm extremely busy at the moment and current circumstances made this an unexpectedtly inconventient process. I'm relaying this here to publicise one example of how the decision to advertise to paying customers has impacted me and - by inference - many others, in addition to the impositions I face when trying to support customers. 

I am very unhappy about this palava. 

So a heads up for anyone wanting to stop ads being displayed within their commercially licensed copy of TeamViewer, you will need to: 

1. Grab the TeamViewer ID of each computer where ads appear in the interface
2. Email privacy@teamviewer.com, but:
   • Be explicit you want ads within the app ceased

R00tKit

Just to let you guys have an update.

Contrary to JellyAhHa, when I sent the opt out request to privacy@teamviewer.com (sent May 21st, six days ago) I *never* got a reply.

My request was the following: (copy/paste).

"Hi. I am a paying teamviewer customer.  My registered e-mail is xxxx.  As per the instructions on your forum here (hyperlink to this forum thread) I am writing to you in order to ask you to stop spamming me with advertisements forever in-between my teamviewer sessions. I would also like you to know that I find your method of advertising and your business ethic appalling, and unless you rectify this I will seriously consider not renewing my license. A quick read of the forum topic will let you know what I mean. Thank you."

Since I sent this, I never got a reply, not even an automated one. To top that, just yesterday after a teamviewer session, I again got a pop up ad urging me to try their AR service. I am simply at a loss of words to describe my wonder at the way they conduct business...

AK111

i am sorry opt-out isn't working for you. I sent a similar email and received a confirmation of my opt-out in about 48 hours. So far it ha worked.

AK111

Unfortunately @Esther I just received a pop-up ad even though Cagri [last name removed by moderator per Community Guidelines] from Teamviewer support emailed me: " I have added your account into the list of Marketing that you should not have any pop-ups on your side as long as you are signed in with your licensed account."  Please appreciate this is simply not acceptable. Teamviewer is breaching the terms of its own privacy policy. I look forward to your response and internal investigation.

 

RoverRadio

I came here searching same thing. Been paying account for years, have always been annoyed by this.

Now that I see it's widespread, I'll be searching for a TeamViewer replacement. I'm guessing I can find an alternative that's cheaper that doesn't have this annoying problem.

AK111

@Esther  - do you have an updare for the community? Why is Teamviewer not abidiing by it's opwn opt out policy?

Asymmetric

I just wanted to add to the criticism here. This behavior is completely unacceptable, and clearly intentional.

Your attempts to upsell your existing customers are costing my employees time, and costing me money in addition to the thousands of dollars already paid for our licenses.

You can tell your sales team that any upselling they are doing to existing customers will not account for driving away those of us who won't stand for this behavior.

AK111

Well said, we are all contributing our own and employees' time and money to make Teamviewer act like a responsible corporate citizen that abides by its own privacy and opt-out policies and stops spamming paying customers. 

nstek

Why am I getting a new ad in my paid Teamviewer app every day??????????????

Seriously annoying to get an ad every day when disconnecting from a support session.

I pay my subscription, I don't want ads!

Please give us the option to disable these ads, it is making me consider alternatives for my remote support business.

Coady

Agreed, this is driving me nuts. Even when I click on the "dont' show this again" it often proceeds to open up a browser and show me more ads. I've complained on Twitter but not much help there. Currently looking into alternative remote access software. 

n2n

This is BA.  Two years on and the stituations is getting worse.

n2n

Esther. It's clear you don't exist. You must and an AI system here to only make the situation worse.  You show complete contempt towards your loyal customers. 

This problem is STILL ongoing.

 

Esther

Hi all,

Sorry that I do not have better news for you, but the developement teams are still working on the self-opt-out.

As stated earlier: This requires some developing efforts, it will take some time, but it will come.

I keep you posted on this.

Esther

ukmike

As a developer I may be able to help.

Put an opt in check box on the form named checkOptIn

@Esther Where the ad code starts, add an If..Then condition.

If checkOptIn = true
##  execute the ad code.
end if

that took me about a minute to write.

Any other coders out there?

Staj

Corporate customer here, how do we turn off the advertising within the client? It interupts workflow and has become more and more frequent.

Esther

Hi all,

A few minutes ago, I posted the Change Log for the latest Insider Build (15.8.2). This version has the following improvement listed:

Licensed customers can now opt-out of in-product marketing messages. Important in-product messages like EULA updates will still be received.

Important note about the insider build: The intention is to get early feedback on new features, improvements, and developments before the public release.

This means that the current TeamViewer insider build version may not be tested in full functionality and could contain bugs as it is basically an image of the current development state.

As this is a testing environment it is not recommended to use the insider build in a productive environment or to be rolled out globally on all devices you have.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that we are getting this feature in the global release as soon as possible. (Edit: For now: Windows only)

Thanks again for your help and patience so far,

Esther

hamburg4u

Will this also be applicable to customers who are not using the latest version of Teamviewer?

Esther

Hi @hamburg4u 

Thanks for your question.

For now this option is only availalbe in the Insider Build (and with this most likely only for most of you as an initial test as I am guessing you are not using an Insider Build in your productive environment).

However - it will find its way in the official releases from now on. From my current knowledge you will need to work with TeamViewer in version 15.8 or higher to enable/use this option.

Please keep in mind that this version has not been released yet.

Thanks and best,

Esther

Esther

Hi all,

With today's release of TeamViewer in version 15.8.3, the self-opt-out is now available for licensed TeamViewer customers on Windows devices using TeamViewer in version 15.8.3. 

Please find the Change Log for 15.8.3 here.

You will find the Setting here: Extras --> Options --> Advanced --> Show advanced options --> under TeamViewer options un-tick the box for In-product marketing messages --> OK

 

Thanks again for your help and patience so far,

Esther

Steve1010101010

Please just have it turned off by default.

If I chose to be constantly anoyed I will be sure to go tick the checkbox.

Cheers, Steve - Stay Safe

AppleCore

How about us Mac folks? Thanks!