They'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling kid

from here

I'd love to hear more about the pint-sized prodigy who found threats that adults had missed but I understand why that kind of information shouldn't be made public.

Scourge of your online privacy

from here and here

Before it was just a browser plug-in collecting the data, but now apparently it's the anti-virus itself doing the dirty deed. I wonder if this is enough to classify Avast as a rogue security product.

Unfortunately this just reinforces the notion that if you aren't paying for the product then you are the product.

Why not both?

from here

The news that Avast (the anti-virus software brought to you by International Talk Like A Pirate Day) is selling the browsing data it collects to 3rd parties is definitely more than a little disappointing. One could imagine that they're trying to take out the competition; in which case one might accuse them of anti-competitive behaviour, but who wants healthy competition in that industry? It's certainly fair to say this represents a significant conflict of interest and a profound ethical lapse, however it remains to be seen if other members of the AV industry will hold them accountable since they've got such a terrible track record of doing that in the past.

Don't quit your day jobs

from here

This browser from Avast isn't the first time I've seen a security vendor shipping their own browser, and it probably won't be the last. But frankly, if I wanted all my apps to come from the same place, I'd have stuck with Microsoft. I can't help but think the resources that went into making a browser no one wants could have been better spent improving their anti-malware product.