According to a cybersecurity researcher, extensions linked to AVG and AVAST antiviruses collect a lot of information, not useful for security
Cybersecurity is a constant fight between guards and thieves, but some times you can’t even trust the guards. This was discovered by Wladimir Palant, developer of the well-known Adblock Plus browser extension, who noticed a very strange behavior in four extensions linked to antiviruses.
These are the Avast Online Security, AVG Online Security, Avast SafePrice and AVG SafePrice extensions (the names are double, because Avast bought AVG in 2016) all linked to the security suites of the Avast group. These extensions are available for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and Opera, and they always behave in the same way: according to Palant they rake in information about user behavior, in far more quantities than would be sufficient to ensure safe browsing with Chrome, Firefox and Opera. While Mozilla and Opera Software have already removed these four extensions, Google has not. And Palant didn’t miss the opportunity to tease the Web giant.
Spy extensions: what data they collect
The amount of data collected (and sent to Avast) by the four antivirus extensions is remarkable: full URL of the pages we visit, tracking ID generated by the extension itself, title of the visited page and path of origin, how we arrived on a page (by link, by typing the URL, by a bookmark etc etc), a value that indicates if it is the first time we visit the page, country code, name and version of the used browser, name and version of the operating system. According to Palant, most of this information is not used to protect the navigation, but to profile the user’s behavior, his online habits and the contents that he visualizes through the two browsers.
Mozilla responds, Opera also, Google does not
A little after the publication of this information by Palant came the response of Mozilla, which removed from the store of Firefox add-ons all four extensions spy. Opera Software did the same, but after a precise report by Palant. Only Google is missing: the four extensions are still usable on Chrome and have not been blocked. On the behavior of Big G Palant comments ironically: “Extensions are removed from the Chrome Web Store only after they make the news. Does anyone have a contact at Google who can help out?”.