Extensions now available in Chrome and Firefox stores

Dec 22, 2019 06:56 GMT  ·  By

Browser extensions developed by Avast and also launched under the AVG brand are now once again available for download from the official Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox add-on stores after the security company introduced a series of privacy updates.

The extensions were removed from both stores earlier this month – Mozilla pulled them in the first week of December, while Google did the same only a few days ago due to the amount of data that it collected from users’ devices.

The issue was first brought to light by Wladimir Palant, the developer of AdBlock Plus, one of the top ad-blocking browser extensions these days.

Palant discovered Avast and AVG extensions collected user information such as visited sites, search history, and other data that allowed the company to reproduce a browsing session.

The collected data was then sold by Avast to a series of customers, but Avast chief executive Ondrej Vlcek insisted this only happened after it was anonymized and aggregated. According to estimates made by Softpedia based on Avast’s earnings reports, Avast makes more than $40 million every year by selling user data collected by its extensions.

Avast worked together with both Mozilla and Google to address the privacy concerns, and the extensions went live in both add-on stores once again this weekend.

At the time of writing this article, the following extensions are available from the two add-on stores:  

Firefox Google Chrome
Avast Online Security Avast Online Security
Avast SafePrice AVG Online Security
AVG Online Security
AVG SafePrice
Softpedia can confirm that installing these extensions works correctly in both Firefox and Chrome.

In a statement for Softpedia, Avast insists that it’s listening to user feedback and improving its products accordingly.

“Privacy is our top priority and the discussion about what is best practice in dealing with data is an ongoing one in the tech industry. We are committed to the security and privacy of personal data. We are listening to our users and acknowledge that we need to be more transparent 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,” Avast says.

The company doesn’t specifically mention the privacy changes that it introduced in the updated versions of its extensions, but says they can all be find in its Privacy Policy.

“We made changes to our extensions including limiting the use of data and these changes are explained clearly in our Privacy Policy. Further to this, Avast Online Security is available for download from the Mozilla and Chrome stores. It's important to us that users understand that we're listening to concerns about transparency and data use, and striving to do better in this area,” the security vendor adds.

Neither Mozilla nor Google commented on the reasons for removing the extensions from their add-on stores.

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Avast and AVG extensions
Avast and AVG extensions
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