Hello Andrew. Thank you for taking the time to write. My apologies for the delayed response.
We understand and take seriously the responsibility to balance user privacy with the necessary use of data for our core security products. Avast/AVG collects and analyzes only the information necessary for our security products to protect customers and to improve product performance.
We want to assure our customers that we are committed to our core mission of protecting consumer security and privacy. Our products policy provides more detail about which data we collect and why: https://www.avg.com/en-us/products-policy
Firefox are improving their anti-tracking encryption:
Firefox turns controversial new encryption on by default in the US | The Verge
When will the "Secure" browser match this?
Dear AVG
I have been using AVG for many years now, and had assumed that AVG would not have to be part of my purging of Google, Facebook and other Surveillance Capitalist products from my devices. However, I recently tried to whitelist (on AVG AdBlock) a website so that my review of their products could be accepted (AdBlocking denied my reviews access). In doing so I discovered that myriad Google and Amazon sites were already on my whitelist. Eventually, after several approaches, AVG advised me that there was a hidden facility to remove those sites from my whitelist…leaving me a little worried about the links between AVG and the surveillance capitalist corporations: why would all those sites be on there unless Google and Amazon paid AVG for them to be there? Why would the facility to remove them be hidden?
This followed concern raised during my initial use of AVG "secure browser", which was reported back to me by some on-line links as being "Google Chrome". When I contacted AVG, I was assured that the secure browser had no links back to Google. I am not now so sure of the truth of that "assurance".
And now this:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdkq7/avast-antivirus-sells-user-browsing-data-investigation?utm_source=reddit.com
Further to the above: I was using AVG Secure Browser to look up Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens. In a new tab I opened Google Maps (not signed in - I keep the Google stuff on a Chrome window) and guess where it centred itself? Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens. So my ("untracked" DuckDuckGo) search information went from one tab of Secure Browser to another, presumably via Google.
What is the point of me not signing in to Google Maps if AVG are going to pass on my data (without my express permission, by the way) to Google?
Could someone please explain to me whether AVG shares the data they get, from my use of AVG products, with any third parties? Especially with Google, Amazon, Facebook etc. And perhaps you could also cite some evidence (public statements to that effect, perhaps?) to support your explanations.
I started paying for AVG a few years ago, and so, when I read Zuboff last year, it didn't occur to me that AVG would be doing the same as Google: "we think Google is free, but actually, Google think we are free…"; "we think we are searching Google, but actually, Google are searching us…". I thought AVG was helping secure me against Google, but are AVG actually helping Google to get past my security?
I hope not, because I have a couple of AVG products that run to September 2021, and it would be a shame to waste that "subscription" if I have to find a security package that isn't in with Google.
Hi, I apologize for delayed response. Regarding your follow-up questions, simply answered:
1. No, we do not collect or pass data to Amazon or Google.
2. By default, in the AVG Secure Browser, there are no entries in the whitelist, unless entered by the user. My speculation is that data could have been imported from other browser (i.e. Edge, Firebox, Chrome), hence your further reference of Amazon, M&S, and Bookings.com showing up as shortcuts.
3. No. And that's the reason you are not able to reproduce.
4. No, before it closed, Jumpshot did not have access to every search, every click and every buy on any domain. The VICE article includes responses from those companies listed. We stopped data sharing with Jumpshot on 28 January and announced its closure on 30 January. More information is available: https://blog.avast.com/a-message-from-ceo-ondrej-vlcek
Regards, Shawn
Thank you for taking the time to reply, Shawn, and for the link to your products policy.
1. Not being technical, I'm afraid I do not know, having read your products policy, whether you are collecting data from my computer use and passing them on to Amazon or Google in any way. Could you answer that question for me, please?
2. Why are all those Amazon and Google sites on the whitelist of the AVG Adblock (I didn't put them there)?
3. Does the AVG Secure Browser use data from a search in one tab and pass it to Google Maps when opened in another tab? If not, how did that happen in my example? (I have tried to reproduced this effect without success…)
4. Regarding the link to a story by Vice.com that I supplied: what is your comment regarding the claim that "An Avast antivirus subsidiary sells 'Every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site.' Its clients have included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, and McKinsey."? Was this true, and can you also confirm that "Avast [have] announced it will stop the Jumpshot data collection and wind down Jumpshot’s operations with immediate effect" (also quoted in this story by Vice.com)?
As I mentioned, I am a long-term AVG customer (and not a journalist) who is concerned that AVG/Avast are not preserving the privacy of my data,
Andrew Corser
A further bit of strange behaviour of AVG "Secure" Browser: on the new tab page, I noticed that Amazon, M&S and Bookings.com came up as shortcuts - I thought these were most landed-on urls, and therefore the most useful shortcuts…I do not use Amazon (haven't for several years, due to Bezos, taxes and now surveillance - there are so many alternatives, and a few pence off the price is an enormous price to pay for facilitating Bezos and his crew), haven't been to M&S or Bookings.com websites for many months or years…so why do those shoprtcuts appear? I guess they are "sponsored" (although they don't say so)_ and I PAY for "Secure" Browser - why are AVG/Avast on the take after I have already paid you?
Hello Andrew. Thank you for taking the time to write. My apologies for the delayed response.
We understand and take seriously the responsibility to balance user privacy with the necessary use of data for our core security products. Avast/AVG collects and analyzes only the information necessary for our security products to protect customers and to improve product performance.
We want to assure our customers that we are committed to our core mission of protecting consumer security and privacy. Our products policy provides more detail about which data we collect and why: https://www.avg.com/en-us/products-policy