“We have offered our Avast Online Security and SafePrice browser extensions for many years through the Mozilla store,” Avast said in a statement, as reported by. “The extension attempts to collect as much context data as possible, and it does so on purpose.”Īvast acknowledged the issue and said it was working with Mozilla to resolve the problem. “Avast Online Security collecting personal data of their users is not an oversight and not necessary for the extension functionality either,” Palant wrote.
Read also : NortonLifeLock, Avast Merger Gains UK Approval The add-ons also reportedly document how the user got to that page, along with a per-user identifier and details about the operating system and browser version used, plus other metadata.Īll that data is then transmitted back to Avast’s back-end servers He also alleges the extensions when installed in a browser, track the URL and title of every webpage the user visits. Palant alleged that while the extensions prevent malware infections and phishing safeguards, the Avast and AVG extensions are also spying on the web surfing habits of users. It seems that Mozilla took the decision after it noted the concerns of Wladimir Palant, who is responsible for the AdBlock Plus extension for Firefox. Users just cannot download the extensions from the Firefox add-on store any more. The issue centres around four extensions made by Avast and its rival AVG, that Avast purchased back in 2016 for $1.3bn.Īvast and AVG extensions have been removed but are not blocked, which means that the extensions remain installed in Firefox browsers for the time being.
Mozilla has reportedly taken the decision to remove Avast and AVG extensions out of it Firefox store, over data privacy concerns.
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