Author Topic: Avast Questions  (Read 20499 times)

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Pindakaas

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Avast Questions
« on: March 08, 2012, 03:37:21 PM »
I want to get this straight.

I still want to use Avast Free , but i want a exact answer if possible.


- What exact personal information does Avast collect , if you have Avast Free installed on your computer ?

- If it collects personal information , to what third party's does it send too ?

- Why is the privacy section in the EULA not listed in the privacy policy ? if i click the privacy policy on Avast.com i see other information then in the privacy section in the EULA.

- And what exactly do they mean with this '' The collected information may be transferred to third parties or to other countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the country or region in which you are situated '' , what third party's do they mean ? , and what country's do they mean , i live in The Netherlands and my information goes to Czech Republic i assume , any other country's my information goes too ?

- If i do not participate in the community of Avast , ( unchecking the box ) if i install Avast , do i still get 100% protection from Avast , including the cloud features ?

- And i do want to help Avast in a way , only not by giving personal information , i dont mind to send anonymous information to Avast to make their detection ratio etc better , if i uncheck the box , what information does still get sended to Avast ?

- And if i uncheck the box , does WebRep still collect information on what sites i visit , and what i type in search engines ?

- If i do not install WebRep , am i still protected against exploits ? , if i do not install WebRep , which protection feature falls ?


I do not want to make Avast look bad or something , i just want exact information , straight forward , not in a cryptic way , just tell me a exact , straight forward answer please.

I prefer to hear it from a Avast worker , i have read the EULA , but i want to hear it from a worker himself.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2012, 03:42:26 PM by Pindakaas »

Gargamel360

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2012, 03:41:58 PM »
You already have a thread for this.

The CTO said he would give you an answer.

Since you can't get much higher up the authority chain than that, I guess all you can do is wait, or send him an email in case he forgot.

Pindakaas

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2012, 03:43:27 PM »
You already have a thread for this.

The CTO said he would give you an answer.

Since you can't get much higher up the authority chain than that, I guess all you can do is wait, or send him an email in case he forgot.

I didnt ask all the questions there , this thread i ask all the questions i wanted to ask.

And the answer that he is going to give on that topic is only partially to my question , also to other questions from other forum members.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2012, 03:45:22 PM by Pindakaas »

Offline Gopher John

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2012, 04:02:50 PM »
I doubt that anyone could answer your questions to your satisfaction, ever.  It's a wasted effort; like swimming in a circular drain. ::)
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Pindakaas

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2012, 04:25:46 PM »
I doubt that anyone could answer your questions to your satisfaction, ever.  It's a wasted effort; like swimming in a circular drain. ::)

Why not ?

Is it so hard to give a straight answer to the questions i ask ?

I don't think that is too much to ask for.

Gargamel360

  • Guest
Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2012, 04:41:50 PM »
Mainly because you ask audit-level questions.

And because its hard to deal with someone who has a zero-trust issue.....kind of like how you have problems dealing with people who have blind-trust issues, no?  ;)


Other than that, @anyone besides OP, I can't tell you what to do, but I suggest we just leave this to the company men/women now.  Lest we end up with a thread here like the one running at Wilders right now, which is accomplishing nothing that I can see.

Offline Asyn

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2012, 04:44:35 PM »
Lest we end up with a thread here like the one running at Wilders right now, which is accomplishing nothing that I can see.

+1 ;)
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Offline igor

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2012, 04:49:36 PM »
I'd say the key question is - what exactly do you consider to be a personal information?

Pindakaas

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2012, 04:53:02 PM »
I'd say the key question is - what exactly do you consider to be a personal information?

Well , anything that can identify who i am and everything related to that.

And , what does Avast consider to be personal information ?

Really , its not that hard for somebody who knows the answer to answer my questions right ?

Otherwise its just keeping the answer for yourself for own benefit.


Pindakaas

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2012, 05:26:06 PM »
I'd say the key question is - what exactly do you consider to be a personal information?

Do you know the answer to the questions ?

So yes , can you answer them ?

Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2012, 06:12:52 PM »
OK, let me give you some answers. Please see below.

- What exact personal information does Avast collect , if you have Avast Free installed on your computer ?

Registration of Avast Free AV: name, email address
Product itself: your IP address, your Avast ID.

- If it collects personal information , to what third party's does it send too ?

Currently, I'm not aware of any.
The data from the registration will not be shared with any third party.
The data sent by the product may be shared in the future (if there was strong enough reason to do so) but only in aggregated form.

- Why is the privacy section in the EULA not listed in the privacy policy ? if i click the privacy policy on Avast.com i see other information then in the privacy section in the EULA.

Do you mean the privacy policy link down on www.avast.com? Well, that page talks about data collected from the website. Of course, the product itself has a different privacy policy, and that's in the EULA which is part of the product (located in C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\License).

- And what exactly do they mean with this '' The collected information may be transferred to third parties or to other countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the country or region in which you are situated '' , what third party's do they mean ? , and what country's do they mean , i live in The Netherlands and my information goes to Czech Republic i assume , any other country's my information goes too ?

Third parties: see above.
Countries: Avast itself (as a company) currently has 5 locations (Czech Republic, USA, Germany, Austria and a parent company in the Netherlands). There may be other locations/offices opened during the lifetime of the product/EULA.

Currently, the personal data from the registrations are stored exclusively on our servers in Prague (i.e. inside the EU) - although they may be routed through our US servers.

- If i do not participate in the community of Avast , ( unchecking the box ) if i install Avast , do i still get 100% protection from Avast , including the cloud features ?

Pretty much. There might be some tiny little things now and then, but in general, the protection level should stay the same.

- And i do want to help Avast in a way , only not by giving personal information , i dont mind to send anonymous information to Avast to make their detection ratio etc better , if i uncheck the box , what information does still get sended to Avast ?

Community membership isn't really about any personal data. The only thing that may be considered personal are the two things mentioned above -- your IP address and the installation ID of your avast (which allows us to track your history, measure the number of active installations etc).

- And if i uncheck the box , does WebRep still collect information on what sites i visit , and what i type in search engines ?

WebRep is a cloud-only feature. As such, it has no other way than to send this information to our servers - to get a rating info about a domain, you obviously have to send the domain name to the server.

BTW WebRep doesn't send full URLs, just domains.

- If i do not install WebRep , am i still protected against exploits ? , if i do not install WebRep , which protection feature falls ?

If you don't install the WebRep / browser plugins, besides the WebRep ratings, you will also lose the phishing site protection. There's some additional functionality planned for the plugins in the next program update as well.

I do not want to make Avast look bad or something , i just want exact information , straight forward , not in a cryptic way , just tell me a exact , straight forward answer please.

That's fine, no worries. I don't think we have anything to hide here... we're not in the business of stealing your personal data and selling it on the black market, really... :)


Cheers
Vlk
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Hermite15

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2012, 06:27:47 PM »
may I "politely" ask how many times the OP intends to re-post a thread with the very same topic ??? 

edit: I mean seriously, this is bordering harassment :o
« Last Edit: March 08, 2012, 06:32:36 PM by logos »

Offline rhuds13

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2012, 06:36:57 PM »
The OP seems to have maybe a language barrior causing missunderstanding but VLK answered all questions in a simple and easy way to understand.  Avast is just trying to cover any future problems legally while still providing great service to all. Good straight answeres to people asking for easy way to understand goes a long way in showing just how Avast cares for the users. Tks VLK.

Pindakaas

  • Guest
Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #13 on: March 08, 2012, 07:11:12 PM »
OK, let me give you some answers. Please see below.

- What exact personal information does Avast collect , if you have Avast Free installed on your computer ?

Registration of Avast Free AV: name, email address
Product itself: your IP address, your Avast ID.

- If it collects personal information , to what third party's does it send too ?

Currently, I'm not aware of any.
The data from the registration will not be shared with any third party.
The data sent by the product may be shared in the future (if there was strong enough reason to do so) but only in aggregated form.

- Why is the privacy section in the EULA not listed in the privacy policy ? if i click the privacy policy on Avast.com i see other information then in the privacy section in the EULA.

Do you mean the privacy policy link down on www.avast.com? Well, that page talks about data collected from the website. Of course, the product itself has a different privacy policy, and that's in the EULA which is part of the product (located in C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\License).

- And what exactly do they mean with this '' The collected information may be transferred to third parties or to other countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the country or region in which you are situated '' , what third party's do they mean ? , and what country's do they mean , i live in The Netherlands and my information goes to Czech Republic i assume , any other country's my information goes too ?

Third parties: see above.
Countries: Avast itself (as a company) currently has 5 locations (Czech Republic, USA, Germany, Austria and a parent company in the Netherlands). There may be other locations/offices opened during the lifetime of the product/EULA.

Currently, the personal data from the registrations are stored exclusively on our servers in Prague (i.e. inside the EU) - although they may be routed through our US servers.

- If i do not participate in the community of Avast , ( unchecking the box ) if i install Avast , do i still get 100% protection from Avast , including the cloud features ?

Pretty much. There might be some tiny little things now and then, but in general, the protection level should stay the same.

- And i do want to help Avast in a way , only not by giving personal information , i dont mind to send anonymous information to Avast to make their detection ratio etc better , if i uncheck the box , what information does still get sended to Avast ?

Community membership isn't really about any personal data. The only thing that may be considered personal are the two things mentioned above -- your IP address and the installation ID of your avast (which allows us to track your history, measure the number of active installations etc).

- And if i uncheck the box , does WebRep still collect information on what sites i visit , and what i type in search engines ?

WebRep is a cloud-only feature. As such, it has no other way than to send this information to our servers - to get a rating info about a domain, you obviously have to send the domain name to the server.

BTW WebRep doesn't send full URLs, just domains.

- If i do not install WebRep , am i still protected against exploits ? , if i do not install WebRep , which protection feature falls ?

If you don't install the WebRep / browser plugins, besides the WebRep ratings, you will also lose the phishing site protection. There's some additional functionality planned for the plugins in the next program update as well.

I do not want to make Avast look bad or something , i just want exact information , straight forward , not in a cryptic way , just tell me a exact , straight forward answer please.

That's fine, no worries. I don't think we have anything to hide here... we're not in the business of stealing your personal data and selling it on the black market, really... :)


Cheers
Vlk

I appreciate your answers greatly !

Made me giggle a bit that a global moderator actually answers.

Shows that they actually care ;)

I am now allot more relaxed about this , i will install Avast now.

And , IMO i do not ask the same questions over and over , i got my answers now , so i wont ask the questions i asked on this thread anymore.


Only , why am i  '' watched '' again now ?
« Last Edit: March 08, 2012, 07:17:44 PM by Pindakaas »

Pindakaas

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Re: Avast Questions
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2012, 07:15:04 PM »
What does aggregated mean ?