fightingfi
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AVG to Spy on you
- Thread starter fightingfi
- Start date
In all fairness, it used to be good, i never had a single problem with it for years, recommended it to loads of friends and family and they too never had issues.
Following one update however I noticed a previously zippy machine was noticeably sluggish, further investigations led me to discover that there were no less than 13 prcesses running just for AVG.
Binned there and then and advised everyone else to do the same. Ended up with Avast, seems OK so far...
Following one update however I noticed a previously zippy machine was noticeably sluggish, further investigations led me to discover that there were no less than 13 prcesses running just for AVG.
Binned there and then and advised everyone else to do the same. Ended up with Avast, seems OK so far...
Little history lesson for all the kiddies out there:
Once upon a time, you had to pay for any software you wanted to use. Some companies put out a trial version that was limited to a particular time, or had critical features disabled. If you really wanted to use the product, you paid for it.
Then, someone stumbled upon an idea: How about we let people use our software for free, if they agree to look at advertisements. We can actually make more money selling the ads than we can selling the software! Customer's tried it, and hated it, because the ads were obtrusive, and many times made the computer unusable. We then coined the new term - Adware, and considered it the same as Viruses on our computers.
Sometime around the year 2000, this little company called Google who came upon a different approach. Instead of providing obtrusive ads to customers for using "free" programs, they would instead collect usage data that they could sell to advertisers, who could then provide more effective, targeted ads to the customers. This business model took off, as the data collection process was invisible to the customers, did not negatively affect the computing experience, and advertisers were more than willing to pay for the data!
Fast forward to today, and people think it is a horrible thing that they cannot have their software programs for free, with no strings attached. If you don't want data collected, if you don't want obtrusive ads, pay for a product that companies have developed.
If AVG were doing this on their paid version, that would be a problem. But why do people think this is such a horrible thing for something they are not paying directly for?
Once upon a time, you had to pay for any software you wanted to use. Some companies put out a trial version that was limited to a particular time, or had critical features disabled. If you really wanted to use the product, you paid for it.
Then, someone stumbled upon an idea: How about we let people use our software for free, if they agree to look at advertisements. We can actually make more money selling the ads than we can selling the software! Customer's tried it, and hated it, because the ads were obtrusive, and many times made the computer unusable. We then coined the new term - Adware, and considered it the same as Viruses on our computers.
Sometime around the year 2000, this little company called Google who came upon a different approach. Instead of providing obtrusive ads to customers for using "free" programs, they would instead collect usage data that they could sell to advertisers, who could then provide more effective, targeted ads to the customers. This business model took off, as the data collection process was invisible to the customers, did not negatively affect the computing experience, and advertisers were more than willing to pay for the data!
Fast forward to today, and people think it is a horrible thing that they cannot have their software programs for free, with no strings attached. If you don't want data collected, if you don't want obtrusive ads, pay for a product that companies have developed.
If AVG were doing this on their paid version, that would be a problem. But why do people think this is such a horrible thing for something they are not paying directly for?
D
Deleted member 126051
Guest
Long story short.
They've been collecting data on you for years.
But there are new rules on how they report the collection of certain pieces of data now.
As such, they have to notify you.
This is it.
They've been collecting data on you for years.
But there are new rules on how they report the collection of certain pieces of data now.
As such, they have to notify you.
This is it.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2001
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if you are not paying for it then you are the product
Sp33dFr33k
2[H]4U
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- Apr 20, 2002
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- 2,481
I just always assume every site and every application is tracking everything I do. This way I'm not surprised or alarmed when it turns out to be true.