Using Avast? You might want to reconsider
Discussion
That's not news though, is it? It's been public knowledge for a long time now. This investigation just directly connects and confirms some of the companies involved. Avast are not alone either, they're just one of many companies involved in tracking users using their products and monetising the data collected.
Google and Facebook in the mix, twitter and so on, they are all at it, your data is now the money. Even worse if you sign in to the services, use google maps for example for sat nav etc. Even games.
I use something called Little Snitch on the Mac and it reports who is beaming out to the web and where. A visit to a web page can result in a lot of connections and tracking. If I try a new app to see what it is useful for, I get all the connections it attempts shown and where the countries are, some are firing off requests all over the place. I delete them.
I use something called Little Snitch on the Mac and it reports who is beaming out to the web and where. A visit to a web page can result in a lot of connections and tracking. If I try a new app to see what it is useful for, I get all the connections it attempts shown and where the countries are, some are firing off requests all over the place. I delete them.
Just read an article on Ring Door bell doing the same through Android App. Annoyingly Ring is a paid service. Not sure if iOS is the same.
https://boingboing.net/2020/01/27/ring-doorbell-ap...
However, I don't know the veracity of this claim.
https://boingboing.net/2020/01/27/ring-doorbell-ap...
However, I don't know the veracity of this claim.
Corso Marche said:
That's not news though, is it? It's been public knowledge for a long time now. This investigation just directly connects and confirms some of the companies involved. Avast are not alone either, they're just one of many companies involved in tracking users using their products and monetising the data collected.
The original issue was that the Avast browser plugin was reporting user data back, leading to Mozilla & Google/Chrome dumping them out of the app store & disabling the plugins. The issue now is that it's the AV package itself that's doing the data gathering.The_Jackal said:
I thought AVAST was a s
t AV that people stopped using years ago simply because it didnt catch stuff properly.
I guess their business only survives on new people who dont know better.
That's not true, its performance as an A/V is fine. t AV that people stopped using years ago simply because it didnt catch stuff properly.I guess their business only survives on new people who dont know better.
https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/...
Mr Pointy said:
The original issue was that the Avast browser plugin was reporting user data back, leading to Mozilla & Google/Chrome dumping them out of the app store & disabling the plugins. The issue now is that it's the AV package itself that's doing the data gathering.
Avast had a company policy for collecting as much user data as possible and monetising it.That's the story. The varied different methods employed in doing so don't matter so much, it's the intent and overall goal which do.
But people are perhaps a little naive if they believe Avast are worthy of headlines for doing so. It's the modern world - that's how things work. Thousands of companies exist in these spheres; data acquisition, merge, analysis, and targeted marketing. If you've an electronic device of any description which is connected to the internet just assume your privacy is gone, and take whatever measures you personally deem fit to try and limit or misdirect it. C'est la vie.
I used Avast up until about a year ago, when I got cheesed off with it setting its own secure browser to start on boot every time the program, rather than the virus info, updated.
The popups were annoying before then, but the "use our browser, even though you've said you don't want it" was a step too far, so it was removed from all the machines in the house with extreme prejudice
The PCs are all using W10, so I use Defender as the main A/V, with a Malwarebytes scan occasionally just for peace of mind.
I've not had any problems, touch wood, but then this place is probably the worst hive of scum and villainy that I visit regularly
The popups were annoying before then, but the "use our browser, even though you've said you don't want it" was a step too far, so it was removed from all the machines in the house with extreme prejudice
The PCs are all using W10, so I use Defender as the main A/V, with a Malwarebytes scan occasionally just for peace of mind.
I've not had any problems, touch wood, but then this place is probably the worst hive of scum and villainy that I visit regularly
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