Use AVG Free AntiVirus? Be prepared for your privacy to be violated.

Do you use AVG’s free antivirus product?  If so, starting October 15th AVG will be begin to sell your personal and private web browsing history and additionally your personal private search history to third party advertising companies.  This can be used to identify you and have advertisements display based on your browsing and search history.  For many people including myself that is a huge step into invading my personal privacy as an individual.

Additionally, I have young children living in my home that also use the family computer in the living room.  Would I want AVG or even more importantly third party companies identifying my children and delivering inappropiate content to them based on something that they may have searched for?

According to AVG’s new privacy policy:

We provide products and services to help you secure your data, devices, and personal privacy. We use data to improve those products and services; provide support; send notifications, offers, and promotions; and to make money from our free offerings so that we can continue to offer them for free.

We use data that can identify you, called personal data, to:

• Enable you to purchase and download products, obtain access to services and engage in offered activities;
• Provide you information about virus alerts, new and upgraded products and services, and other information you have requested;
• Provide you with service messages to your device;
• Alert you if we determine that your files, applications or emails are potentially malicious;
• Send you newsletters, informative emails or other information regarding AVG; and
• Provide you special opportunities, including offers relating to third-party products and services

So, just as a service be ye warned!