AVG anti virus just updated there privacy policy. it says that they can and will sell your browsing

[Dedicatech]

In their new privacy policy they state in the section "What do you collect that cannot identify me?"

http://www.avg.com/gb-en/privacy-new?A=#what-do-you-collect-that-cannot-identify-me

We collect non-personal data to make money from our free offerings so we can keep them free, including: Advertising ID associated with your devices 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. Sometimes browsing history or search history contains terms that might identify you. If we become aware that part of your browsing history might identify you, we will treat that portion of your history as personal data, and will anonymize this information. We may also aggregate and/or anonymize personal data we collect about you. For instance, although we would consider your precise location to be personal data if stored separately, if we combined the locations of our users into a data set that could only tell us how many users were located in a particular country, we would not consider this aggregated information to be personally identifiable.

Even though they state that if they find that could identify you then they will remove it. but they only say they will remove it if they can detect it.

They later state in "Do you share my data?"

http://www.avg.com/gb-en/privacy-new?A=#do-you-share-my-data

Yes, though when and how we share it depends on whether it is personal data or non-personal data. AVG may share non-personal data with third parties and may publicly display aggregate or anonymous information.

further down the article under "What rights do I have over my data?"

http://www.avg.com/gb-en/privacy-new?A=#what-rights-do-i-have-over-my-data

You have the right to opt out of the use or collection of certain data, including personal data and non-personal data, by following the instructions here. http://www.avg.com/gb-en/privacy-preferences That link just takes you to instructions on how opt out of the new letter newsletter.

Source: http://www.avg.com/gb-en/privacy-new?A

Edit: spelling

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Yet another good reason not to use AVG. I used to be a big fan of theirs until someone recommended I give Avast a try.

 

[Mike McCall]

I too have used Avast for many years. Unfortunately, the free version is becoming obnoxious with nags. Still, it's a good product though.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I know they put out some. I typically set it to silent mode and tell people not to call their support, but to call me.

But bang for the buck, if you are looking for free, they are hard to beat imo.

 

[mraikes]

I'm not an AVG fan, but is there really any surprise here? The old saying "if you're not paying for the product, YOU are the product" is just as true today as ever.

If nothing else, good on AVG for providing clear, straightforward, plain-english answers rather than garbled legalese.

 

[seedubya]

I honestly can't understand how anyone that's in business is surprised when another business tries to make money from their freemium product. @mraikes hit the nail straight on the head.

 

[altrenda]

The problem isn't just their policy today. What happens if the company gets sold and the new company decides to change the policy?

Look what happened when Radio Shack went bankrupt and tried to sell their customer data as an asset? If not for AT&T and Apple threatening to sue, all that info would have been sold to the highest bidder without restrictions.on how it was used.

 

[Mike McCall]

I know they put out some. I typically set it to silent mode and tell people not to call their support, but to call me.

But bang for the buck, if you are looking for free, they are hard to beat imo.

Oh, I agree. I finally did find how to silence the nags. Right now, I'm leaning toward converting my clients on free Avast to a managed solution. That of course will require they sign a managed agreement.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Yes, but at least if they don't want managed then you've got an option.

 

[cypress]

You can always use the Business Avast and control them with that with the managed solutions. Has worked good for me for a couple computers I have on there.

 

[TechPJC]

I've never liked AVG. Now, I have one (1) more reason.

 

[hexpek]

AVG used to be 'good guys', seems not any longer. Their free product isn't any better than Security essentials and there are better paid solutions out there. Most of my SOHO users have migrated away from AVG and are using MSCE with the premium version of MalwareBytes. So far this has been working for them but I'm always open to better solutions.

 

[dgtechservice]

Does anyone actually opt-in for the advertising ID?

 

[lan101]

I think all AVG products have been garbage for well over 5 years now. But yeah I dont blame these companies for the nagging trying to get users to use the payed product. I just try to sell Bitdefender to home users as I think it currently does well and stays outta the way mostly. If they are not willing to pay for that then I just throw on free Avira and tell them they will deal with nagging.

 

[gefenou]

Well another reason to not recommend AVG.
About avast, does anyone propose their client to pay for it ? Does it change something except pulling off those annoying alert !

Thanx !

 

[ohio_grad_06]

With avast I just set it to silent/gaming mode, then I turn off their extra tools and set it to auto update the program as well as definitions.

I actually use their free version on my facing pc at home and hardly ever have nag screens with it all set this way.

 

[gefenou]

It was too easy !
I just made those change and i'll see if it's enough !

Thanx a lot @ohio_grad_06 !

 

[ohio_grad_06]

No problem. Won't say you'll never see any ads, but seems like I don't see many on my gaming pc(what I meant to say above lol)

 

[JoeTech]

I have quite a few customers using the free avast av and been getting a lot of them not able to load any webpages. I finally traced it down to the secure dns settings. Once I turned that off they were fine. I don't mind avast. It is a lot better then the resource hog AVG has become, but it seems to have the most nags and alerts out of all the free av's