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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.
What's the best alternative right now for windows?
You are all products. Products get SOLD! SOLD! products SOLD! YOU PRODUCTS!!!
Mooo!
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
i
127.0.0.1 avg.com
Problem solved. Can't sell what you don't have.
This reminds me of what has happened with JetBrains, a Czech company who makes popular programming tools.
They recently announced some significant licensing changes that involved a subscription model. As any sane person would expect, the customers absolutely hated this decision. The uproar was significant, with an extreme level of dissent. Paying customers, many of them who had been customers for years and years, explained that they will move away from JetBrains' products immediately.
Given the extreme degree of public outrage regarding these completely unwanted licensing changes, JetBrains said they'd listen to the customer feedback.
In the end, JetBrains backpeddled somewhat and adjusted the licensing options. However, many customers are still unhappy, and severe damage has already been done. Lots of long time JetBrains customers are now suffering from the dreaded FUD: fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Because of this, many are still considering moving to alternate tools.
All it takes is one single change like this, doing something that the customers do not want, and everything goes to hell. Previously loved companies can become distrusted outcasts.
Mozilla could be considered an extreme case of this. Once considered among the most respected and beloved organizations, years of unwanted changes to Firefox have driven away many of Firefox's users (Firefox's market share across all platforms is likely in the single digits now). Users just don't like being treated poorly, especially if there are alternatives! Firefox's users got fed up with the constant and awful UI changes, so they moved to Chrome. Now Mozilla is facing irrelevancy, as they end up with fewer and fewer people using their software. It's a real shame, but that's what happens when you shit all over your users and customers!
At least they made the disclosure, which is a step in the correct direction for a consumer to make a choice.
while I might not like it, it's correct.
if you see me, smile and say hello.
At least you get something in return, you get an antivirus product free of charge.
With some competitors, you pay for the privilege to have your privacy sold off.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In my experience AVG is dreadful and only somewhat effective.
I used it for years when it was good, and then it started to want to do updates that never "took"...so it would try to do the update again, and again, and again. Sometimes it would start but not run or it would error out. Then it started displaying nag screens with ads for the "Pro" version.
I dumped it and moved to Comodo which seems less needy and doesn't pester me with ads.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
So. More ask Toolbar disguised as AVG Secure search...
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
This is similar to a company selling both radar detectors to the public and radar systems to the police.
I stopped using AVG in favor of Avast probably 5 or 6 years ago, maybe longer now, I can't remember. The thing with AV is that you have to keep changing companies every 4 or 5 years because the awesome one goes from being free and relatively resource unintensive to being not free, a resource hog, and sometimes, as in the case of AVG, even sells your information to the people who are the source of most of the viruses.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
It's interesting watching so many software products (and OSes, etc) go through the same cycle. A new player comes on the scene and innovates or simply does things better than the competitors, they become popular and get a decent install base, they stagnate and / or bloat, their usefulness and effectiveness drops, and then often times they turn Evil as a last ditch effort is made to monetize what is left of their users.
I really liked AVG at one time. For me it was the free go-to antivirus product, and it really did a better job removing the malware of the day when it was at its peak (oh, around 8-10 years ago).
Better known as 318230.
It will not long so long, because the AVG software will flag it and it will delete itself.
A timely PC MAG review rating many free anti-virus programs: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...
Don't let the door hit your bum on the way out, AVG
I never installed the browser add-on component.
But I guess now I'll move to Comodo anyway, and hope that's better for a while
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's sad. There was a time, not SO many years ago, where I strongly recommended AVG to people as the lightest, least intrusive Antivirus solution for Windows. The decline makes me frown.
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.
I switched to Avast a long time ago.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
./ has neglected an even bigger elephant in the room: most modern AV products insert their own HTTPS certificate into the OS you're running for your "safety" and "protection".
In short they scan the traffic which wasn't meant to be scanned by third parties, thus AV vendors circumvent the vary basis of encryption.
Welcome to a brave new world. Then your PC hasn't really belonged to you since 2008 or something but no one cares anyway: http://libreboot.org/faq/#inte...
I wonder if there's anything left to buy nowadays which is yours truly and which doesn't spy on you or have a dozen of backdoors for NSA/CIA/M5/etc.
Unless the specific product states otherwise, all AVG products and services are included under this Privacy Policy.
That's from this new policy.
New AVG Privacy Policy -- "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."
It's not personal. We don't identify you by name, we just follow you around and record every single thing you do, when you do it, where you do it, and if you've a webcam attached, we'll film you while you do it, then sell it to any and everyone who pays.
In other words, we're providing you a "free", self-defending keylogger.
If the perpetrators announced that they planned to hack Target and sell your credit card information, would you have shopped there, knowing what would happen? I wouldn't. Maybe you are that stupid, but I don't think most people are.
Ceasing to shop at Target AFTER the hack had already occurred would be closing the barn door after the horses has bolted. You'd only be hoping to indirectly influence management of other companies to hopefully increase the budget for security, which might reduce the risks of some breach somewhere. Switching from Target to Walmart after the news only increases your own risk, because Target's systems were swarmed with security experts from the FBI and private security companies - they got READ security conscious real quick.
Here AVG is announcing ahead of time, "if you use our product we WILL release your information." You can choose now to not have your information released by not using their product.
Ignorant
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
Well would you look at that: http://i.imgur.com/YsNjWCc.png
Thanks for protecting me AVG. /sarcasm
What do you get when you cross a mountain-climber with a mosquito? Nothing! You can't cross a scaler with a vector.
So I went into the AVG control center, turned link scanner off, reloaded the page, and now it's letting me read it.
Seriously I stopped using AVG like 9 years ago when they started dicking around caching web pages and sticking their nose where they didn't belong.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Their data collection will include doccuments read during scans or returning some of the images on your computer ? Sounds like the next step.
Way to destroy your brand. It will be amusing to watch other virus and malware scanner pushing updated definitions to detect and remove AVG.
At the risk of getting flamed, at least they disclose and are up front about it. I can guarantee you that lots of companies are selling your personal data... ermmm.. I mean "anonymous marketing information" without telling you about it. To me that's infinitely worse. While I don't like AVG's actions, at least they have the decency to tell you about their policies in direct terms.
Remember, when they give you the software for free, you're not the customer. You're the product.
if there's gonna be a sufficient boycott and shitstorm regardind this ass move.
Yes, it was an admittedly bad attempt at being funny.
Sorry, but you don't expect me to use A-material for charity, do you?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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