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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.
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!
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.
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.
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
./ 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.
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.