What is AdChoices and How to remove it

What is AdChoices

AdChoices is a legitimate advertising service that is often misused by malicious actors to make revenue. So if you’re suddenly seeing a lot of ads by AdChoices, you could have adware installed on your computer. Adware is a type of infection that aims to bombard users with ads so it can make revenue. It’s not particularly dangerous but it quickly becomes very annoying due to the amount of ads it shows. Adware may also show questionable ads, which could potentially endanger your computer if clicked on. You could also encounter scam. These potentially dangerous ads are why you should avoid interacting with any ads while adware is installed.

If you’re wondering how the adware installed onto your computer, you installed it yourself. It was likely attached to some free program you installed, and you did not notice. A lot of free programs come with these extra offers attached, and you need to learn how correctly install programs if you want to avoid the unwanted programs in the future. Carry on reading to learn how to do that.

While adware itself isn’t particularly dangerous, its generated ads are a different story, which is why the sooner you delete AdChoices, the better.

Adware distribution methods

In most cases, users accidentally install adware when installing free programs. A lot of freeware come with additional offers, usually adware, browser hijackers and PUPs. The offers are optional but are set to install alongside unless users deselect them. However, they’re hidden from users during installation, preventing them from deselecting anything. This is why software bundling is popular among unwanted program developers.

In order to correctly install freeware and not end up installing useless programs, you need to pay attention to how you install free programs. Follow the process carefully and don’t just click “Next” without reading anything. When given the option, opt for Advanced (Custom) settings instead of Default. Advanced settings will make all offers visible and you will be able to deselect all of them.

Always pay attention when installing programs and make sure you deselect all offers. Some of them may seem useful at first but no legitimate program will use software bundling to spread. It’s a sneaky method that essentially tricks users into allowing unwanted installations. And any program that uses it should not be allowed to install.

Is adware dangerous

We already said that AdChoices is a legitimate advertising service. A lot of the ads you see when browsing will be provided by AdChoices. Simply seeing those ads does not mean your computer is infected with adware. However, if you suddenly notice that there has been a noticeable increase in ads, you’re being redirected to weird sites and weird extensions have been added to your browsers (whether it’s Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox), you could be dealing with adware. We do not recommend trying to identify the issue yourself, and instead you should use anti-spyware software.

While adware is not dangerous itself, the same cannot be said about the ads it generates. Some of them could lead you to potentially harmful or scam content. Until you get rid of the adware, you should avoid interacting with ads altogether, just to be on the safe side.

Some ads may offer you to download programs. We do not recommend doing that because there is no way of knowing whether the ads are safe and you won’t end up with some kind of malware. In general, you should never download anything from ads. If you want a program, use official sources to get it.

Some adware generated ads also show bogus notifications that you have won something. These giveaway scams are usually trying to get users’ personal information. Keep in mind that no matter what those ads may be saying, companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google do not host these kinds of giveaways. If they were, they would announce them via official channels, not random ads.

AdChoices removal

We strongly recommend using anti-spyware software to remove AdChoices adware. This would be easiest because the program would take care of everything. You can try to uninstall AdChoices adware yourself manually but keep in mind that you will need to find all of its files and get rid of them.