Meanwhile, Mozilla has quietly removed the Avast Online Security, Avast SafePrice, AVG Online Security, and AVG SafePrice extensions from the Mozilla add-on repository.Avast Safeprice is a free web browser accessory which allows you to save money by various to shop online websites and internet stores.
These will be available as usual on the Mozilla store in the near future.” “We have already implemented some of Mozilla’s new requirements and will release further updated versions that are fully compliant and transparent per the new requirements. Avast does this without collecting or storing a user’s identification. “It is necessary for this service to collect the URL history to deliver its expected functionality. “The Avast Online Security extension is a security tool that protects users online, including from infected websites and phishing attacks,” an Avast spokesperson added. Since Palant’s original blog post didn’t manage to catch the attention of the browser makers, he reported the extensions to Mozilla developers on December 2.Īn Avast spokesperson told ZDNet that they are working with Mozilla “to resolve the issue.”
However, the same snooping behavior was found in the Avast and AVG SafePrice extensions as well, about which Palant wrote in a blog post dated December 3. On October 28, Palant published a blog post detailing these findings. Palant concluded that the collecting of data was not an oversight. All that is connected to a number of attributes allowing Avast to recognize you reliably, even a unique user identifier,” Palant said. Tracking tab and window identifiers as well as your actions allows Avast to create a nearly precise reconstruction of your browsing behavior: how many tabs do you have open, what websites do you visit and when, how much time do you spend reading/watching the contents, what do you click there and when do you switch to another tab. “The data collected here goes far beyond merely exposing the sites that you visit and your search history.
This data includes the full address of the page, the page title, the referer URL, a unique user identifier (UID), your OS version, your country code, browser name and its exact version number, whether you previously visited the page, and other information. Wladimir Palant, the creator of the AdBlock Plus ad-blocking extension, found that the Avast Online Security and AVG Online Security extensions were collecting much more data than they are intended to, including detailed user browsing history. While these extensions certainly appear helpful, they were caught snooping on user’s browsing habits in October this year.
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