AVG: Will Sell Your Browsing History to Online Advertisers

[rhoenix]

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, and the company has published a blog post explaining the decision to go this route, along with the full privacy policy's content, so users can read it in advance and decide on their own if they want to use its services or not.

This is what AVG claims it will collect from users for the purpose of selling to interested parties, mainly online advertisers.

"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."

Because "free" is only "free" for users

AVG has mentioned that it will not sell personal data like name, emails, addresses, or credit card details, but that these might sometimes leak inside the browsing history.

When this happens, the company claims it will take precautionary measures to filter out personal details from the browsing history before selling it.

AVG also adds that personal, identifiable information like addresses, age, or IPs, even if not sold, may sometimes be shared with collaborators.

This seems to be a provision put in place to allow user data to be used for statistical and research purposes, and the company has stated that data will never be bundled together, only aggregated. This means that only emails would be put together in the same batch, never attached to any name, username, or other personal data.

Right. AVG's off the list.

[Hotfoot]

Well shit. What's left now?

[B4UTRUST]

Avast is still okay, I think?

[Hotfoot]

Avast fell into annoyware a while back as I recall.

[Lys]

The one i use is Ad-Aware, it seems to work just fine.

[rhoenix]

Avira might do the same thing, I don't know, and I don't know of any other free software programs that aren't terrible. F-Secure is a paid option, but at least it's lightweight and efficient - I've been considering that direction.

And Lys, Ad-Aware is for spyware, not viruses, though scanning for both is important.

[Hotfoot]

The reign of the good, free anti-virus may well be over, and if not it's dying fast.

It was to be expected, perhaps, but still.

[rhoenix]

The reign of the good, free anti-virus may well be over, and if not it's dying fast.

It was to be expected, perhaps, but still.

Yeah, the business model lends itself to this kind of thing in retrospect. Ah well.

[Lys]

And Lys, Ad-Aware is for spyware, not viruses, though scanning for both is important.

Sure back in 2007 when you were young, the economy was still good, and Bush Jr was President, you used Ad-Aware to supplement your anti-virus software. But today we have flying kill-bots roaming the skies, cybernetic limbs are a thing, a black man is nearing the end of his second Presidential term, and Ad-Aware is as far as i can tell some of the best free anti-virus and anti-spyware software to be had.

You can download it here: http://download.cnet.com/Ad-Aware-Free- ... 45910.html

[rhoenix]

And Lys, Ad-Aware is for spyware, not viruses, though scanning for both is important.

Sure back in 2007 when you were young, the economy was still good, and Bush was President you used Ad-Aware to supplement your anti-virus software. But today we have killer robots roaming the skies, cybernetic limbs are a thing, and a black man is nearing the end of his second Presidential term, and Ad-Aware is as far as i can tell some of the best free anti-virus and anti-spyware software to be had.

You can download it here: http://download.cnet.com/Ad-Aware-Free- ... 45910.html

Touche - it's obvious that it has been many moons since I've ventured into the wild lands of Ad-Aware. I'll have to do some checking into it, then.

[B4UTRUST]

You're correct, Hotfoot. Avast has fallen to annoyware but it's mostly ignorable. It's what I use for the time being.

[Hotfoot]

I also recall it fucked up several of my games, which put it on the fast track to nopesville.

[B4UTRUST]

Haven't had that problem that I can recall. What games, do you recall?

[Hotfoot]

No, it's been years now.

[Hotfoot]

I decided after a bit of research last night to say screw it and pick up BitDefender, which is currently having a sale where you can get coverage for multiple systems for a nice discount. For the basic version, Antivirus Plus, it's ~$40 for a year for up to three systems and should do what most people need reasonably well, and the system seems to have a relatively low footprint when running and has been well-rated across multiple sites.

So long, free AV. Maybe we'll meet again.

[rhoenix]

Considering that most "free" software subsisted on ad revenue, and considering that tracking techniques have become much more sophisticated (and no longer requires that you click on an ad), it really does seem obvious in retrospect that their lifespan for viability was short.

That said, good on you for testing, Hotfoot. Bitdefender came up a good couple times as a good option during my searching yesterday and today for good paid AV programs. Kaspersky comes as a very close second, but some of the internal politics of the company have me concerned. So far, BitDefender appears to be the best solution available currently.