Could Antivirus products ... Spy on you?

[Sasa]

Why antivirus programs couldn't take advantage of their trusted status to steal personal data and generally spy on you?

Your antivirus occupies an exalted position of trust. It's allowed to look at all your files, communicate with its home base, and more. What if it abused that trust to spy on you? Could that happen?

 

[Aura]

Well, AVG already do with AVG Secure Search Toolbar.

 

[oneeye]

Www.howtogeek.com just did a writeup of Avast doing a information gathering of their customers browsing and in order to provide relevant ads to them. This was implemented poorly,and they made it more transparent when caught out. Now you have to opt in to this shopping sites recomendation. Avast wrote a rebuttal and the link is in howtogeeks article. Also,Verizon has been spying on their customers as well,and @kennwhite on twitter did the research,but several write ups have been done on this subject revealed just a few days ago. Contact me and I will digg up to links for articles.

 

[FreddyFreeloader]

Baidu installs a tracker in it's AV - no charge.

 

[darko999]

That's why you have to find a vendor you trust. I trust on ESET.

 

[Striker]

If u want privacy, disconnect from the internet. U have no other chance. And sure, avs can spy on you deeply. u just need to trust the company and dont be paranoid. One of the best av vendors are Emsisoft/Eset when it comes to privacy. For me, i have no problem that anyone spying on me, have nothing ilegal done yet and dont want to. So if they are happy to look wich website i use or what i do with my laptop, well they can be happy, i dont care. u dont even know what inside a laptop/pc is that can spy on u. I read something that some laptop vendors can use the cam without u know it, that are things that scars my way more.

 

[Anupam]

Baidu is more kind of a Spyware rather an Antivirus.

For privacy related issues I only trusted Emsisoft till date.

 

[jackuars]

It's wise to assume yo're not safe on the internet. So it's better to say don't give a d*m* for your privacy

If Avast can do it, anyone else can.

 

[Striker]

It's wise to assume yo're not safe on the internet. So it's better to say don't give a d*m* for your privacy

If Avast can do it, anyone else can.

Any source that avast spy on users? if u mean the report like 2 weeks ago, Avast have well explain it on a statement. that wasnt spying on users.

 

[jackuars]

Any source that avast spy on users? if u mean the report like 2 weeks ago, Avast have well explain it on a statement. that wasnt spying on users.

The article at HowToGeeks was updated, but it doesn't say that all Avast's claims is true.

When products use cloud technologies, you never know what's been collected and how it's been used. And who reads' privacy policy every single day?

 

[Av Gurus]

360 is a famous spy
Wikipedia

 

[oneeye]

I had posted another question in a differnt thread about "cleanmaster" and went back to dig up my original research.

Back around the end of July or beginning of August this year (2014) Cleanmaster was PULLED FROM PLAYSTORE for a short bit because they were stealing all kinds of personal information. The article was on Readit and Android Central. The author gives their changelog for that update. I think it was Google that pulled it,but they made corrections rather quickly. The best thing to do,is always research the app you want to download. Read true reviews,go online and search for more reviews. Visit their website, and ALWAYS READ PERMISSIONS,

 

[neapo]

If u want privacy, disconnect from the internet. U have no other chance. And sure, avs can spy on you deeply. u just need to trust the company and dont be paranoid. One of the best av vendors are Emsisoft/Eset when it comes to privacy. For me, i have no problem that anyone spying on me, have nothing ilegal done yet and dont want to. So if they are happy to look wich website i use or what i do with my laptop, well they can be happy, i dont care. u dont even know what inside a laptop/pc is that can spy on u. I read something that some laptop vendors can use the cam without u know it, that are things that scars my way more.

Think again, you and other mind wise like you:

 

[Tani]

it's like watchman will rob the home, without letting home owner know about

 

[rambutan]

everyone is doing a business .. , the biggest business today is data collecting, more companies will pay more $$$ to promotes their products directly into your email and browsers

 

[jamescv7]

There's an instance on spying depends on how those functions works on data transmission, privacy policy will be the basis of the claimed data.

Example: Asking to send files for further investigations/ checking is already a bit expose to your privacy.

 

[Dubseven]

Companies + User Data = $

An user that is looking, for example, for a TV, will see lot of Ads on Facebook, and visited sites, ads of promotions on TVs.
Everything is about target.

Companies target interested users by them products to sell more.
This is made lot of times with cookies. I'm not sure that any antivirus company does this but it's one of the method of using collected data from users.

 

[Secondmineboy]

Every AV needs data to work with

No data, no good protection.

 

[Maximum]

Awhile back I heard something about avast! installing a Toolbar on peoples PCs so they could track them, So I guess anything is possible.

 

[Azure]

Could they?
Yes, I think so.

Do they?
I don't know. That's up to everyone to decide.