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Mozilla pulls Avast, AVG security add-ons over data collection

Written by James Delahunty @ 04 Dec 2019 9:07 User comments (2)

Mozilla pulls Avast, AVG security add-ons over data collection In a clear example of irony, Mozilla has pulled four add-ons from popular security firms for violating policies on data collection.
The add-ons are developed by Avast and AVG, who are among the most popular providers of consumer-level security products across platforms. Mozilla removed two add-ons from each firm that protected consumers from dangerous websites and also from scams and other undesirable activity.

Starting in October, Adblock Plus developer Wladimir Palant detailed how the add-ons in question were excessively vacuuming up data from the browsers they were installed on. Far from just collecting data about websites visited, the add-ons went further to collection information on search history, and behavioral information including how long was spent on a webpage, what users had clicked on, the number of open tabs, and even when they switched tabs.



Such detailed information violates Mozilla's policies and it pulled the four add-ons from its store after it was notified of them on December 2. Opera followed suit shortly afterward.

The add-ons are likely to return sooner rather than later. ZDNet reported that Avast is already working with Mozilla to bring its add-ons to compliance.

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2 user comments

16.12.2019 20:12

Mozilla really needs to get their ducks together with Firefox. Lately they have been keeping Malwarebytes very busy with I use the Firefox browser. All kinds of pop-ups, MalWare, and else rolling through.

212.12.2019 10:53

Originally posted by gDavid:
Mozilla really needs to get their ducks together with Firefox. Lately they have been keeping Malwarebytes very busy with I use the Firefox browser. All kinds of pop-ups, MalWare, and else rolling through.

I use water fox, scipt block, priacy badger and possum,popup blocker and forget me not, I only run the bare minimum of scripts to get a page to work, use as much in chrome as well.

I use kapersky and frankly it dose as well as MWB, since MWB went monthly subscription I been using them less, I'll pay 20 a year or 50 every 2 years for a version lock lifetime key anything more than that is highway robbery..since every lifetime key I buy is bad in a month now I stopped using WMB altogether.

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