Hello Marilynn,
We are glad to clarify your request.
We have AVG AntiTrack program which is a privacy application designed to keep your identity safe from the latest online tracking techniques, and protect your system privacy.
Regarding the 'Offline tracking and mouse movement tracking', we have forwarding this to the senior team. They will get back to you soon. Thank you.
Hi Marilynn. Again, this is Shawn writing to you on behalf of the AVG Senior Support team.
Specific to your concern of mouse-movement tracking, via the referenced social media sites, I shared your concern with our development team.
To clarify, at the moment, we do not have a security feature in Secure Browser to prohibit mouse-movement-tracking.
Nonetheless, this is good feedback and it will be considered by our development team, for future product development.
Thank you for your time and effort to communicate with AVG. Regards, Shawn
Ok, so FB does work in AVG Secure Browser which is built on the Chromium engine. I went into settings, turned on all the anti-tracking stuff, and FB still works, however, if you install Firefox these days, their security settings straight out of the box won't allow FB to load at all. What forms of tracking does the AVG Secure Browser still allow that Firefox blocks?
I don't recommend FF to people because of it's memory leak they've never bothered to solve. I'm still waiting for a browser that puts a memory cap on individual tabs too, but that's a different issue entirely.
Hello Marilynn. Thank you very much for taking the time to communicate with AVG. My name is Shawn and I am writing to you on behalf of the AVG Senior Support team.
Specific to your concern, as my colleagues suggested, you may consider trying a 30-day free trial of our AVG AntiTrack, https://is.gd/ewiZLN, which is a privacy application designed to keep your identity safe from the latest online tracking techniques, and protects your system privacy.
Alternatively, to consider using AVG Secure Browser, https://is.gd/0nXhqN, which has Anti-Tracking and Anti-Fingerprinting incorporated in the free version of the browser.
I trust this information helps clarify your concern. Regards, Shawn
I was reading Instagram's latest TOS update and ran across these statements in their data usage section: (you can go to IG's TOS and read these yourself, I copied them straight out of the TOS data usage page on their site)
****
Device operations: information about operations and behaviors performed on the device, such as whether a window is foregrounded or backgrounded, or mouse movements (which can help distinguish humans from bots).
Device signals: Bluetooth signals, and information about nearby Wi-Fi access points, beacons, and cell towers.
Information from partners.
We also receive information about your online and offline actions and purchases from third-party data providers who have the rights to provide us with your information.
***
Offline tracking, mouse movement tracking, those two behaviours in times past were typically the domain of trojans and keyloggers. Network observation and usage to travel was the realm of worms in unwanted situations. (memories of the Blaster Worm going back awhile now).
Is there a way inside AVG to flag this behaviour? I know that Firefox stopped allowing FB to run in their browser after one of their updates and their website explained why at the time. I've turned off 3rd party cookie usage in my chrome-based browser and added Instagram to the block list in AVG.
I'll be leaving FB soon as they share TOS with Instagram. Just looking for ways I can tell my clients (PC repair tech here) to block malware-like behaviour from Facebook and Instagram should they choose to stay on those sites. Surfing Incognito doesn't stop in-session behaviour normally engaged in by a site in regular mode, so I can't suggest that. Basic cookie behaviour is acceptable and AVG already warns the user of tracking cookies. But does AVG have a way to tell when a site like FB is tracking mouse movements? I really don't like the idea of companies acting like keyloggers!
If this is an AVG developer question, where do I go to send this to them?
We are glad to clarify your request.
We have AVG AntiTrack program which is a privacy application designed to keep your identity safe from the latest online tracking techniques, and protect your system privacy.
Regarding the 'Offline tracking and mouse movement tracking', we have forwarding this to the senior team. They will get back to you soon. Thank you.
I don't recommend FF to people because of it's memory leak they've never bothered to solve. I'm still waiting for a browser that puts a memory cap on individual tabs too, but that's a different issue entirely.
Who exactly would I talk to directly about mouse-movement tracking?
Hello Marilynn,
The Anti-Fingerprinting feature can hide information that certain websites need to operate properly. So, it will not block the access of Facebook when it block the cookies.
If you encounter problems with a website you normally visit while Anti-Fingerprinting is enabled, you can temporarily disable the feature and check it.
Go to the Security & Privacy Center and click the slider on the Anti-Fingerprinting tile so that it changes from green (ON) to gray (OFF).
Hi Marilynn. Again, this is Shawn writing to you on behalf of the AVG Senior Support team.
Specific to your concern of mouse-movement tracking, via the referenced social media sites, I shared your concern with our development team.
To clarify, at the moment, we do not have a security feature in Secure Browser to prohibit mouse-movement-tracking.
Nonetheless, this is good feedback and it will be considered by our development team, for future product development.
Thank you for your time and effort to communicate with AVG. Regards, Shawn
Thanks Shawn. I appreciate direct answers.
Mailynn, websites and ad networks can use your unique browser configuration, referred to as your browser fingerprint, to track you. Your browser fingerprint consists of data related to your device configuration, browser, and history of your online behavior, which is continuously stored while you interact with web pages. Anti-Fingerprinting helps disguise your digital fingerprint to prevent websites from identifying and tracking you without your consent. This feature is disabled by default.
To enable Anti-Fingerprinting, go to the Security & Privacy Center, then click the slider on the Anti-Fingerprinting tile so that it changes from gray (OFF) to green (ON).