Antivirus Software giant AVG admitted that they are going to put on sale to third party companies the consumer data they collected in subscribing to their service. They made the announcements that starting October 15 they would open the information to third party.
However, they are quick to defend that only 'non-personal data' would be put on sale and that the other data such as browser searches and history that would give identification would be disposed of.
The non-personal collective data include frequent apps downloaded and used -how you used them and where; frequented places checked in and for what purposes; what shows you watch and when; what kind of purchases you do online; and many other impersonal information.
These would be sold anonymously to companies to gauge how to improve their services and products and what else they could produce and offer to the market. This would be one of the company's sources of profit to be able to continue its free service to consumers.
In a Reddit forum AVG answered questions from enraged consumers. They answered that "Advertising ID associated with your devices browsing and search history, including meta data; internet service provider or mobile network you use to connect to our products; and Information regarding other applications you may have on your device and how they are used."
AVG added that "sometimes browsing history or search history contains terms that might identify you. If we become aware that part of your browsing history might identify you, we will treat that portion of your history as personal data and will anonymize this information." This will include your IP address, service provider and advertising IDs. All these changes will be enforced starting on the October 15.
As Chief Legal Officer of AVG Harvey Anderson stated, "Without privacy online, there can be no security; and without security, there can be no trust. At AVG, we value our customers and believe they should know exactly how their information is being used by us. Therefore, we have updated our Privacy Policy to make it simpler, clearer and more transparent -- representing only part of a continual evolution to improve AVG user choice and control."
This bold move will now change the way you will look at your decisions in just clicking the "Agree" button without reading the Terms and Conditions, especially the privacy policy.
