Mozilla removing all of Avast products from Firefox.

[Gabe3000]

Recently I came across an article stating that Mozilla removed all of Avast's products from Firefox extensions. The reason it stated was that Avast was collecting much more data than needed heres a bit from the article. "The data collected here goes far beyond merely exposing the sites that you visit and your search history. "Tracking tab and window identifiers as well as your actions allows Avast to create a nearly precise reconstruction of your browsing behavior: how many tabs do you have open, what websites do you visit and when, how much time do you spend reading/watching the contents, what do you click there and when do you switch to another tab. All that is connected to a number of attributes allowing Avast to recognize you reliably, even a unique user identifier." And I would like to know more about this since these claims are very real and scary. Article in question https://www.ghacks.net/2019/12/03/mozilla-removes-all-avast-firefox-extensions/

[DavidR]

See https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=230901.0.

[Asyn]

Avast-Statement: We have offered our Avast Online Security and SafePrice browser extensions for many years through the Mozilla store. Mozilla has recently updated its store policy and we are liaising with them in order to make the necessary adjustments to our extensions to align with new requirements. The Avast Online Security extension is a security tool that protects users online, including from infected websites and phishing attacks. It is necessary for this service to collect the URL history to deliver its expected functionality. Avast does this without collecting or storing a user's identification.

We have already implemented some of Mozilla's new requirements and will release further updated versions that are fully compliant and transparent per the new requirements. These will be available as usual in the Mozilla store in the near future.