What is avast! up to?

[Plasmaphaser]

Two things (been using paid avast! Internet Security):

1) A ticket-based query from me to avast! as to why Google reports it is being accessed by Chrome from inside the Safe Zone, despite my having unchecked the chrome install option at install time, AND checked avast!'s own internal setting "do not use chrome......" came back with the reply that avast! uses ONLY chrome for browsing purposes! So: installing avast! is chained to installing chrome too, whether at install time despite what is checked / unchecked, or snuck in later during "updates". Huge amounts of debate in several forums around this one, yes? What are the reasons avast! doesn't just say so up-front as part of their install? Are they afraid of backlash (i.e. reduced sales due to chrome resistance) or should we actually regard the dodgy way chrome is installed  in the same light we would normally view a trojan?

2) A second ticket-based query as to why Google can advertise to me while inside the Safe Zone was met with fluffy fudgery, totally avoiding the question. So, if Google can see what I am viewing in Safe Zone, then firstly why can they do that (wondering about backdoors), and secondly who else can do that (wondering about more backdoors)? Just how safe is internet banking etc in Safe Zone?? I no longer trust the marketing that Safe Zone keeps keyloggers at bay, and in fact no longer trust avast!. Period.

[Eddy]

1)

A ticket-based query from me to avast! as to why Google reports it is being accessed by Chrome from inside the Safe Zone

Ask Google. They are reporting it, not avast. The safezone browser is based on Chromium. And that is the same opensource code that is used by Chrome and others for their browsers. (MORE INFORMATION)

So: installing avast! is chained to installing chrome too, whether at install time despite what is checked / unchecked

No, if you have selected not to install Chrome it will not be installed.

What are the reasons avast! doesn't just say so up-front as part of their install?

Why would they if they don't? It is not their fault people don't know the difference between Chromium and Chrome.

2)

A second ticket-based query as to why Google can advertise to me while inside the Safe Zone

Eh, why wouldn't Google be able to advertise? They have advertisements on their websites and they will be shown in safezone since they are not a threat.

So, if Google can see what I am viewing in Safe Zone, then firstly why can they do that (wondering about backdoors), and secondly who else can do that

And why should they not be able to see things? Safezone is about keeping your system as safe as possible, not about what you are viewing or not. That is a choice you are making, not anyone else. Everyone with a website (that you visit) can get some info, like os used, browser version and such. There is nothing you can do about it.

Just how safe is internet banking etc in Safe Zone?

That depends on how your bank have setup things. E.g. checking if the name you put in for a transaction corresponds to the number etc.

and in fact no longer trust avast!. Period.

Please don't point the finger to avast (or any other security software/hardware) while it is you who doesn't understand how things are working.

[DavidR]

I'm an avast user not an avast employee, so I can't speak for avast software.

1. I rather think that is Google misreporting the browser. The only browser used in the safe zone is the safezone browser, which is a custom build of chromium.

2. sorry I can't help with this one as I don't have the safe zone feature.

[Plasmaphaser]

Thank you Eddy, quite the evangelist! However, no value add for me here, rather confirmation that I have touched on several sore points worthy of such fervent microscopic fundamentalism!

DavidR, for perhaps you and those who have gmail accounts, I invite you to logon and open the inbox. Page right down to the bottom, and you will see a tiny little place on the right-hand side where you can click for account activity info. Google records exactly which browser was used, what IP address you came in on, date, and if you probe further, they also show which country and the area (suburb) you live in. The only times Google shows chrome is when I went in from Safe Zone, all the others are spot on. Go well!

[bob3160]

Thank you Eddy, quite the evangelist! However, no value add for me here, rather confirmation that I have touched on several sore points worthy of such fervent microscopic fundamentalism!

DavidR, for perhaps you and those who have gmail accounts, I invite you to logon and open the inbox. Page right down to the bottom, and you will see a tiny little place on the right-hand side where you can click for account activity info. Google records exactly which browser was used, what IP address you came in on, date, and if you probe further, they also show which country and the area (suburb) you live in. The only times Google shows chrome is when I went in from Safe Zone, all the others are spot on. Go well!

Are you talking a bout the more details at the bottom of your gmail :

It's actually a great way to monitor and catch activity that shouldn't be happening.
I also can't reply regarding SafeZone since I use the free version of avast!

[DavidR]

Well I don't use gmail very often and they have just changed the layout again and I can find nothing in the settings related to activity.

Some more digging and have something about account activity in Accounts, Account Activity (nothing like Bob's image), which I haven't signed up to.

So all in all I can find nothing relating to account activity.

[Plasmaphaser]

Bob, spot on!! Your picture is worth 1000 words lol! Now if you click on "learn more" toward the top of the page, you will see Google has a record of your access, as long as your arm. I am glad to see that your version of the Google info also spells "chrome" and not "chromium". I admire the level-headed way you do your posts (I have read many of them). People tend to forget that blustering a reply stays there, and something may come up that makes such a reply look stupid 

DavidR, not sure why you can't see it, but thanks for trying to be constructive, appreciated 

As for the ticket reply I got from avast! around the browser issue, they used the exact words "Google Chrome" as used by them for their browser in avast!. Unless avast! themselves don't know the difference between "Google Chrome" and "Chromium", or are perhaps themselves confused as to what is actually in their product, I will nonetheless for the interim accept their reply above attempts to mush the two terms by others. Its Google Chrome for now.

As for Google being able to advertise to me in the Safe Zone - this implies said company has the privilege to read from, and write to, the so-called inner sanctum, the 'Safe Zone' - yet we are assured that keyloggers (probably written by dumb nerds who don't know better) cannot?. Ehh? This fact, in addition to the Google Chrome issue above, makes me very uncomfortable indeed. For those who feel I am pointing fingers, pick one. Of course it would be stupid of avast! to deny such privileges to Google, especially if these two companies have some sort of partnership, where Google somehow (shows a fat wallet) rides on the back of the avast! product for advertising reach while at the same time avast! helps spread the Google Chrome Gospel. That seems like the usual business partnership thing. Where avast! seems to have blundered is in the way they have gone about answering queries like mine (they were honest about Google Chrome, but fudged the advertising one - mixed messages to my mind), and of course their bungling of the well-known Google Chrome installation issue. My point is: why don't avast! / Google just state this up front (or openly deny it), allow customers to openly and fairly choose whether they want the naughty bits together with the main package, and respect their customers wishes after that?

By the way, I did my homework before the original post, and have stated publicly on this forum my experience and feelings about them. I am convinced this is a good way to subject these to public scrutiny, and my hope is to learn from the greater 'crowd'. It would be nice, though, if those who do reply, do their homework first, too 

[bob3160]

they want the naughty bits

Chrome and Google aren't considered evil by a lot of people, myself included.
I've preached for many years that there is NO privacy on the internet and if you
use your tools accordingly, Google or any of the others aren't any problems.
My problem is with the NSA but that's a different story.

[Eddy]

Forget the NSA, there was and still is Echelon. And that is not restricted to the USA, a lot of countries are participating in it.
Most secure way to browse nowadays is still the TOR network.
But even with that you can be traced if the browser you are using has security flaws, like FireFox had (has?)

It is like securing your house. You can put the best locks on doors/windows etc. You can get the best security system there is. But if someone wants, there is always a way to get in.

[Plasmaphaser]

The idea was not to brand any software as evil / angelic, lol, but the main thrust was to show that Google correctly reports the browser accessing it, especially its own (Chrome!).

All the other stuff that gets recorded was just an interesting aside, and even so I believe many folks didn't know that, and now they know where to look if interested.

One direct implication is that if one queries Google in this way, and Google reports Chrome when avast! was used, then bottom line is Chrome has been installed irrespective of gassing about what was or wasn't checked, seen or not seen, how it was done etc., and avast! needs to take note of customer opinion on that issue.

I rather like Eddy's illustration of a house secured like a fortress, yet still vulnerable to determined penetration. If you open anything to let a buddy in (who is no threat to you), you risk creating easy-access windows of opportunity for the baddies too - hence my concern with the Google ability to advertise into the avast! 'Safe Zone'.

Bob, yes, as an aside, no privacy online, totally agreed. We are all objects of commercial interest wherever we go, and lately of political and military interest too.

[DavidR]

You haven't said what form these adverts take ?

If the advert is in the web page displayed in the safe zone browser (which isn't google chrome no matter what has been said, but a custom version of chromium) or as pop-ups which could presumable still be activated by the web site content.

That said google ads, etc. have form for being able to get round such things (even if you aren't using chrome but another browser) even if cookies are disabled and the new do not track initiate. Which unfortunately at this time is a request that web sited don't have to comply.

Chrome certainly hasn't been install on either of my systems.