Slashdot Mirror
AVG Proudly Announces It Will Sell Your Browsing History To Online Advertisers
An anonymous reader writes: AVG, the Czech antivirus company, has announced a new privacy policy in which it boldly and openly admits it will collect user details and sell them to online advertisers for the purpose of continuing to fund its freemium-based products. This new privacy policy is slated to come into effect starting October 15. The policy says: We collect non-personal data to make money from our free offerings so we can keep them free, including: Advertising ID associated with your device; Browsing and search history, including meta data; Internet service provider or mobile network you use to connect to our products, and Information regarding other applications you may have on your device and how they are used.
Haven't used any of their products but it sounds to me that in this age of data breaches and privacy dwindling that people are not going to take kindly to this move. I think they'll see a huge drop-off in the use of their services.
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
How about not even using one. Most of them suck anyway, they don't catch the clever malware and they hog resources and slow down your PC. Just be smart on the web, rely on the Windows built-in tools and you don't need one I find.
Getting updates for the AV suite might be a wee bit complicated now, though...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So. More ask Toolbar disguised as AVG Secure search...
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
I dare say that's like saying "I don't need no safety belt, I know how to drive a car".
Yes. Problem is, you're not the only one driving. Neither are you the only one making connections in your machine. And I'm not even talking about some kids you may or may not have which seem to be a magnet for all kinds of malware.
There are far too many programs on your computer that open up connections that can be (and are) abused as attack vectors. You open a PDF (a benign one, not one sent by "lawyer" telling you about that unpaid ebay bill) and your PDF-reader starts making connections. You open up a game selling platform and it opens up a browser that connects to its maker or the maker of the game you plan to buy (or just look at). And we're not even touching browsers, online ads and them being one of the key contemporary attack vectors.
And no, Windows tools don't cut it. Why? Because EVERY malware HAS to circumvent them Because they are installed on EVERY Windows machine. No way around it. Malware has to be tested against them (and yes, it is) and has to be undetectable by everything every user has by default installed. Because, well, why bother launching a virus that is detected BY DEFAULT?
And no, malware doesn't need admin privileges anymore to cause damage. Just ask anyone who has been subjected to cryptolocker and its various variants. The current batch of banking trojans also doesn't need any elevated privileges to cause troubles. All it takes is a certificate and some creative rerouting of your traffic...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Kudos to AVG for being honest enough to admit it in advance and gives its potentially paranoid customers a chance to opt out.
I wish more companies did this. It's a little slimy, but it's a lot LESS slimy when they don't try to hide it.
No, I'm not being sarcastic.
Did they actually make the disclosure, or was it buried somewhere in a 50-page legalese boilerplate document that exists precisely to hide anything important?
Because there's lying, lying by omission, and lying by drowning someone in so much irrelevant detail important things go unnoticed. All are forms of intentional deception, and none should be excused.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.