Beware of this popular free antivirus: now it collects more data than ever

There are certain types of software in which its developers should be more careful, the least in terms of security and privacy . Specifically, we refer, for example, to antivirus solutions, where a good number of proposals come into play, including Avast, which we will talk about now.

In fact, this is one of the most popular antivirus in recent years, although it has also been involved in some recent controversies. To give us an idea of ​​all this, it was recently learned that the security program had collected and sold user data to third parties through its Jumpshot subsidiary . Following reports that revealed all of this, the software has ceased operations of this aforementioned subsidiary and has filed an apology.

Also Read: content://com.android.browser.home/

The controversies with the Avast antivirus, do not stop

Obviously, this is quite serious, since in theory users blindly trust the antivirus software that protects their computers . Well, after this controversy of data sale that we have mentioned, a few days ago Avast launched a new product update. This is the new Avast Free Antivirus 20.1 .

It is worth mentioning that now this new update no longer installs browser extensions, as they were recently removed by Google and Mozilla from their stores. At the same time, this new version includes new confidentiality settings that are active by default and show more announcements. The latter are related to various products from the same firm and from third parties.

For those unfamiliar with the controversy, an investigation found that Avast is collecting users' browsing data in the free antivirus . Later it sells them to third parties through Jumpshot. The worst of the case is that it could be seen that the collected data is not completely anonymous. This is content://com.avast.android.mobilesecurity/temporaryNotifications because they can be tracked to identify a specific user of the program.

The new free version of the antivirus continues to share data

Well, a week ago the company released Avast 20.1 with various bug fixes. Thus, as Avast promised that it would stop data collection, this has been reflected through new privacy settings in the antivirus. Of course, these are enabled by default, as we can see in the attached screenshot.

It should also be noted that the browser extensions are not installed by Avast automatically, since those of Mozilla and Google disappeared from official stores. But at the same time, the firm hinted that users of the free version will see pop-ups about Avast Cleanup Premium . In other words, new announcements have been included in this new version of the software.

Also Read: Have look about is avast cleanup premium review worth or not?

On the other hand we will tell you that now, through the new privacy settings , we can uncheck the data collection in Options / Personal privacy. And is that here we find several options related to data sharing that we can disable. In fact, they are enabled by default to share information about threats and various usage data.

More specifically, Avast shares application usage data to show ads about third-party applications, such as Chrome. In short, the way Avast treats users of its free version will not change. Since in fact in this configuration window that we discussed, it is clear that this collection of personal data is exclusive to Avast Free Antivirus.