Mozilla removes Avast and AVG extensions from add-on portal over snooping claims
Mozilla removed today four Firefox extensions made by Avast and its subsidiary AVG after receiving credible reports that the extensions were harvesting user data and browsing histories.
The four extensions are Avast Online Security, AVG Online Security, Avast SafePrice, and AVG SafePrice.
The first two are extensions that show warnings when navigating to known malicious or suspicious sites, while the last two are extensions for online shoppers, showing price comparisons, deals, and available coupons.
Mozilla removed the four extensions from its add-ons portal after receiving a report from Wladimir Palant, the creator of the AdBlock Plus ad-blocking extension.
Palant analyzed the Avast Online Security and AVG Online Security extensions in late October and found that the two were collecting much more data than they needed to work -- including detailed user browsing history, a practice prohibited by both Mozilla and Google.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 04 2019, @03:01PM (4 children)
I kinda trusted Avast. Never really analyzed the traffic, but I kinda trusted them.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday December 04 2019, @03:31PM
Avast is well known to be feeding this said data to a military grade AI for quite some time.
https://blog.avast.com/avast-ceo-and-garry-kasparov-speak-to-dtx-london [avast.com]
https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com/artificial-intelligence/ [cyberdefensemagazine.com]
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday December 04 2019, @03:42PM
> I kinda trusted Avast
Reminds me of something about a wolf in sheep's clothing...
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 05 2019, @12:33AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 05 2019, @07:49AM
Even when you are a "paying customer," you can still be the product for the real paying customer. The only real rule is that you are only the customer when the money you pay them is greater than the money everyone else combined pays them because you are around. Whoever has the money makes the rules, after all.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by deimios on Wednesday December 04 2019, @03:02PM (2 children)
Back in the "good old days" things were simple, the code was lean, fast, did what it needed with minimal side effects.
Then came inefficiency, the code started to slow down computers, sometimes causing crashes and doing things that caused users to look suspiciously upon their computer.
Then came the popups. Simple at first, only a few pictures and short messages in the bottom right.
Soon those popups became full blown scarescreens: "You NEED to buy X and Y or else your computer is DOOMED!"
Then the browser addins and plugins started appearing, intercepting all your SSL and banking traffic.
Then they started pushing encryption. You want your files to be safe? Pay up!
If you reached this line: what software did I describe above? Malware or antimalware?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday December 04 2019, @03:40PM (1 child)
Both!
Yes, all of the above. I had tried Avast years ago and hated how much it bogged down the machine.
Very recently (and now), one of the companies I work for has Avast on their computers, and you can't disable it, even though you click on "disable shields", you can't stop the processes, etc. While I understand that from a security perspective, as a user I want control of my machine.
Yup, all kinds of popups telling me about how the machine has junk, outdated software, vulnerabilities, offering to scan more and sell me more cleaners, automatic updaters, etc.
Who buys Avast and all of its crapware, and how do companies like Avast stay in business?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday December 04 2019, @03:48PM
It is enforced upon corporations by state actors, as a preliminary requirement for contractors.
https://www.vzcr.cz/en [www.vzcr.cz]
https://www.nato.int/ [nato.int]
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.