When the numbers don't add up and competition gets tougher than expected, companies often resort to certain "modifications" in their policies, trying to obtain additional benefits from their free offers. This time, AVG has found itself in the middle of the storm, revealing through its new privacy policy that it "could" sell user history to third parties.
A few moments ago, I received an email from Bitdefender suggesting a $15 offer to protect three computers for a year. The machine I'm writing on uses Bitdefender's Free edition, and it's logical that occasionally a promotion reaches my inbox, recommending seemingly superior tools. This is essentially what the average user expects from a free antivirus: access to protection, with the occasional commercial email or an advertisement that updates itself in the program's interface. Of course, if a company tries to go further and touch elements it probably should leave alone, the user's harmony is completely disrupted.
What AVG's New Policy Allows
This is what's happening these days with AVG. Several specialized media outlets immediately picked up the update to its privacy policies, which will take effect on October 15, and one finding in particular is disturbing: the company reserves the right to sell "non-personal information" to third parties. While this possible collection already existed in the previous version of the policies, we're talking about browsing and search histories, the advertising ID linked to the device, Internet service provider data, and information about applications installed on the system. On mobile, the collection is even deeper, as it can include phone number, SIM number, IMEI, and geographic location.
AVG spokespeople have said the company hasn't applied any of these policies to date, and users will have the option to disable various aspects of the collection process (the classic opt-out). While some acknowledge AVG's effort to make its privacy policies much clearer, others recommend staying away from its products immediately, such as Alexander Hanff, CEO of Think Privacy. Hanff didn't hesitate to accuse AVG of adopting spyware behavior and abusing user trust. This once again brings us to the debate of "user", "product", and "free". And at the same time, we must ask: What's happening with the rest of the antiviruses...?
