Mozilla removes all Avast Firefox extensions

[SeriousHoax]

Content source

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/12/03/mozilla-removes-all-avast-firefox-extensions/

If you search for Avast or AVG on the official Mozilla Add-ons website, you may notice that no results by these companies are returned. Neither Avast Online Security or SafePrice, nor AVG Online Security or SafePrice, are returned by the Store currently even though these extensions exist.
It appears that Mozilla removed these extensions from its Store. When you try to open one of the Store URLs of Avast or AVG extensions you get a "Oops! We can't find that page" error message.

Wladimir Palant, creator of AdBlock Plus, published an analysis of Avast extensions in late October 2018 on his personal site. He discovered that Avast's extension transmitted data to Avast that provided Avast with browsing history information. The data that the extension submits exceeded what is necessary to function according to Palant.
The extensions include the full address of the page, the page title, referer, and other data in the request. Data is submitted when pages are opened but also when tabs are switched. On search pages, every single link on the page is submitted as well.

Read the full article here

 

[oldschool]

Geez, I can't imagine why Firefox would do this!

 

[SeriousHoax]

Geez, I can't imagine why Firefox would do this!

"Careful what you say, they're watching "

 

[SCPdesign]

Not surprised. I had installed their AV for Windows Server (Test Server) and it just pushed out a ton of garbage (intrusive analytics) to them. Avast itself is malware/spyware. Overrated junk. It was promptly removed and cleaned from the server. They are now on the AV Blacklist along with Malwarbytes who are no better. Glad to see bad applications and plugins being removed regardless of their reputations.

 

[Lemon60]

Piriform and Iobit...

Just Press alt+f4 and stay away.

 

[EndangeredPootis]

Cant wait until chrome does the same.

 

[Threadripper]

Cant wait until chrome does the same.

That'd be ironic.

 

[Venustus]

An "official", unofficial statement from Avast

Avast Community

forum.avast.com

 

[SeriousHoax]

An "official", unofficial statement from Avast

Avast Community

forum.avast.com

Good find I also found this from your link. A request was made on Bugzilla yesterday about removing add-ons that collects user data without their consent and the block was pushed by Mozilla after few hours: Bugzilla
A reaction article from the person who brought to light what shady things Avast does with their extensions: Mozilla removes Avast extensions from their add-on store, what will Google do?

 

[koloveli]

Softwares security collect data

 

[ForgottenSeer 78429]

Cant wait until chrome does the same.

Google is an Idol for data collecting companies. I don't think google would do that.

 

[Paul.R]

For Android system:

Avast Antivirus: 12 trackers

Spoiler: List of trackers

AppsFlyer
Facebook Ads
Facebook Analytics
Facebook Login
Facebook Share
Google Ads
Google Analytics
Google CrashLytics
Google DoubleClick
Google Firebase Analytics
Inmobi
Moat

Avast Cleanup: 18 trackers

Spoiler: List of trackers

AppLovin
AppsFlyer
Facebook Ads
Facebook Analytics
Facebook Login
Facebook Share
Google Ads
Google Analytics
Google CrashLytics
Google DoubleClick
Google Firebase Analytics
Google Tag Manager
Inmobi
Integral Ad Science
ironSource
Moat
Twitter MoPub
Unity3d Ads

Avast battery saver: 15 trackers

Avast wi-fi: 18 trackers

 

[Burrito]

Avast now has a long history of not respecting privacy.... and monetizing people's data.

Two different industry reps told me something else about Avast... but I don't want to repeat it because I don't know if it's true/correct. Needless to say... Avast is not respected in the industry -- at least by some.

Remember this?

Avast Antivirus Was Spying On You with Adware (Until This Week)

We warned you at the beginning of the year that many of your browser extensions are spying on you, tracking what you are visiting, and even inserting ads into pages.

www.howtogeek.com

Or this?

Avast Free Antivirus review

Avast Free Antivirus has tons of features, less-than-perfect protection

www.tomsguide.com

But Avast's Privacy Policy notes that if you search for items in the Secure Browser, "you consent to having your search query and history transmitted to third-party search providers and to being redirected to third-party sites."

By default, Avast Free Antivirus collects data about your browsing behavior and sells it to third parties. The Privacy Policy states that Avast shares "statistical data that has been anonymized and aggregated geographically and so, cannot be used to identify individuals, with third parties for trend analytics."

And this.

Best Intel processor: Core i3, i5, i7 and i9 explained | Trusted Reviews

We offer a guide on the best Intel processor options for both desktops and laptops, including a look at the Core i3, i5, i7 and i9 models

www.theinquirer.net

Maker Piriform was bought by anti-virus company Avast last year and since, users have been complaining of the product going downhill, with 'malware', advertising and other irritating stuff creeping in.

But in this latest build, things get a great deal more Machiavellian as 'active monitoring' is effectively putting spyware in your machine.

BetaNews first spotted the issue - a new telemetry setting that the Changelog describes thusly: "CCleaner now sends a heartbeat every 12 hours which reports up-to-date usage statistics to allow for faster delivery of bug fixes and product improvements"

Waaaaaaah. So a permanent background process that's constantly telling Piriform that your computer is on, possibly more?

But that's not all. Active Monitoring, which collects even more data, is supposed to be an opt-in thing - you'd think that would be obvious after all that GDPR malarky.

But apparently, when you turn it off, it turns itself back on. Hardly optional, is it?

And there is other stuff.

 

[oldschool]

For Android system:

Avast Antivirus: 12 trackers

Spoiler: List of trackers

AppsFlyer
Facebook Ads
Facebook Analytics
Facebook Login
Facebook Share
Google Ads
Google Analytics
Google CrashLytics
Google DoubleClick
Google Firebase Analytics
Inmobi
Moat

Avast Cleanup: 18 trackers

Spoiler: List of trackers

AppLovin
AppsFlyer
Facebook Ads
Facebook Analytics
Facebook Login
Facebook Share
Google Ads
Google Analytics
Google CrashLytics
Google DoubleClick
Google Firebase Analytics
Google Tag Manager
Inmobi
Integral Ad Science
ironSource
Moat
Twitter MoPub
Unity3d Ads

Avast battery saver: 15 trackers

Avast wi-fi: 18 trackers

Avast must be very hungry to eat that many cookies!

 

[plat]

Two different industry reps told me something else about Avast... but I don't want to repeat it

Please repeat it....please? Pretty please? With sugar on top?

 

[Handsome Recluse]

That'd be ironic.

But logical. They're a competition. Although Opera would probably do it faster.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Business-wise, what Avast and most AVs probably does (but maybe less openly) is logical and would be bad management not to do so at least if your 1st goal is to make money. And to tell you, their user base is so huge and either couldn't care less or be aware of this than loosing few thousand geeks and privacy paranoids isn't big deal and worth the mining.

Ethic-wise, well no need for me to add anything, you all got it.

We live since decades in a consumer society, everything around us is made so we spend our money.
Datas help to target us, so datas become very important and valuable, and what is a better source of datas than online habits and behaviors? Nothing.

I wouldn't be surprised if banks start selling our datas as well.

And just a reminder to privacy concerned people, everything you do and buy online is already collected and shared/resold by all those merchant sites you buy from .

Expecting privacy on internet is like wishing for Peace in the world. Utopic and delusional.
Blaming tech giants to data mine is like blaming your government of using Intelligence agencies. Useless and foolish Don Quixote mindset...
Internet is a digital war zone where user datas are resources.

Data is knowledge, knowledge is power, the powerful rule the world.

Be aware that tech giants like Google are just the visible tip of the iceberg, you can see them, know them, have a bit of control on them; but don't forget what is under the waterline, all those obscure and unknown companies extremely specialized in data mining, creating complex and obfuscated mining tools that record every move you do on a sites.
Unlike tech giants they don't have limits or are accountable, they are invisible and unchecked, they can create a full and accurate profile of you without you even knowing.

You are really concerned and desperately want to protect your privacy? Instead of going against the stream, learn to move with the flow.
Select what you expose online.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

Many people, myself included have long warned about Avast. If you search my older posts here you'll find a variety of malware-like activities I found with Avast.

Avast/AVG would never touch my systems/devices. Anything they use, touch, develop or are associated with I would never use. Even if they paid me to use it, I wouldn't. Out of sheer principle I'd never work for them, and would refuse a 200K a year salary.

I'm still shocked people are shocked about continued Avast shenanigans!

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

last time i used Avast as my main AV was Avast v4 back in 2009, i didn't like it much, it failed to detect a PUP (which weren't called PUP at that time) while MBAM did. So i ditched it and never used it except for some short time testings.

Avast v4 GUI

 

[ForgottenSeer 72227]

Well I would like to say I am surprised, but I am not. Avast has been doing this for a while now and unfortunately it doesn't seem like it will change anytime soon, if ever. @Umbra is right, they have so many users that they probably don't care if they loose 100 geeks. If anything, the only reason as to why they user base is has high as it is, is because they offer a free version. Most of these people don't care anyways because they are getting something for free. So unless they all of a sudden loose like 60%+ of their users, they will keep doing this.