The data collected here goes far beyond merely exposing the sites that you visit and your search history. On search pages, every single link on the page is submitted as well. Data is submitted when pages are opened but also when tabs are switched. The extensions include the full address of the page, the page title, referer, and other data in the request. He discovered that Avast's extension transmitted data to Avast that provided Avast with browsing history information.Â The data that the extension submits exceeded what is necessary to function according to Palant. Wladimir Palant, creator of AdBlock Plus, published an analysis of Avast extensions in late October 2019 on his personal site. Mozilla added several dozen extensions for Firefox to the blocklist on Decemwhich collected user data without disclosure or consent, but Avast's extensions are not on the list. Itâ€™s important to us that users understand that weâ€™re listening to concerns about transparency and data use, and striving to do better and lead by example in this area.â€œ Our browser extensions Avast Online Security and AVG Online Security are back on the Chrome Store, and on the Mozilla Store (since 12/17). We made changes to our extensions including limiting the use of data and these changes are explained clearly in our Privacy Policy.

We are listening to our users and acknowledge that we need to be more transparent with our users about what data is necessary for our security products to work, and to give them a choice in whether they wish to share their data further and for what purpose. We have never compromised on the security or privacy of personal data. Â€œPrivacy is our top priority and the discussion about what is best practice in dealing with data is an ongoing one in the tech industry. Avast provided us with the following statement:

Update: The extensions are available again. 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. It appears that Mozilla removed these extensions from its Store. Neither Avast Online Security or SafePrice, nor AVG Online Security or SafePrice, are returned by the Store currently even though these extensions exist.

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.

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