Alternative to AVG?

With the news that from October AVG will be selling on user information to third parties what (free) alternatives are there? Just had a look at Avira but a quick scan of their T&C seems to show they are just as bad for this and I suspect all the rest are too?

I guess this is the way the worlds going although if your using a PC then I don't think this change in policy is that much of a deal. If you use a PC browser like Firefox you can have add-ons that block Ads and Tracking and also set it to clear cookies on closure. It looks like AVG only collect info when you visit there web site or use the Web Shield. Or if you've created an account.

If your using a Tablet or smartphone then they can collect more information but you have to ask yourself is this any different from the hundreds of other apps that you may have running as well.

I personally dislike this sort of thing but its getting harder to minimise your web foot print. You could try MSE coupled with Malwarebytes Free for a PC.. Ghostery add on for Firefox is also very good in blocking who's looking at your info.

Probably not a lot you can do and as the old saying goes "'if you're not paying for the product, you are the product'. You could always set up a free email account and only use it for email confirmations of products loaded and ignore it the rest of the time.

Avast free

I would also recommend Avast free, been using it for years on several computers and it works great. I used to use AVG back when Windows XP was all the rage. But I switched years ago, I found that AVG was hogging resources, massively slowing down any computer I used it on and giving tons of false positives.

I've used (a couple of years ago with XP) Comodo free Internet Security without any probs, always use the custom /selective install to avoid things you might not want e.g. Dragon web-browser, which is chromium based.

May be I'm stupid or blind, perhaps both, but reading through it seems that identifiable data is used for AVG purposes alone. It will be non identifiable or anonmynised data that will be used for other purposes.

If I'm right, I can't see much to fear, especially from a company that purports to look after my internet security, If I'm off the ball, I should like to know, which clauses in the new version are of concern to you all.

TBH I would be more worried about entering a newspaper competition, where quite frequently, according to a BBC series, actual real personal data is sold on to some of the dodgier outfits.

If AVG are trying to monetise from the data, then it's not going to be of any value to a third-party if it's completely anonymised, which would maybe suggest they won't be trying very hard to clean it.

Avast is one of the more popular choices for free AV. Personally I normally recommend Kaspersky to Windows users (free if you have a Barclays account, and picked up fairly cheaply on eBay).

In reply to a post by rich_jtg:

If AVG are trying to monetise from the data, then it's not going to be of any value to a third-party if it's completely anonymised, which would maybe suggest they won't be trying very hard to clean it.

Avast is one of the more popular choices for free AV. Personally I normally recommend Kaspersky to Windows users (free if you have a Barclays account, and picked up fairly cheaply on eBay).

As to Avast, about a year back it ******** my son's computer, but I don't recall the details. Ergo, I'm not particularly thinking Avast!

If the OP wants to stay on the 'free' route, there's also Bitdefender's free edition, though I think you have to create an account (provide an email address) to use it long term.

In reply to a post by rich_jtg:

If AVG are trying to monetise from the data, then it's not going to be of any value to a third-party if it's completely anonymised, which would maybe suggest they won't be trying very hard to clean it.

Avast is one of the more popular choices for free AV. Personally I normally recommend Kaspersky to Windows users (free if you have a Barclays account, and picked up fairly cheaply on eBay).

It depends on to what level the anonymity is taken. Maybe your right about the complete level, but i'd suppose that some general unpersonalised gen could influence marketers' decisions where to place their activities.

Alas! No Barclays account for me: I was enslaved to Midland (now HSBC) for too many years.

Edited by deleted (Sun 27-Sep-15 17:26:03)

http://www.trustedreviews.com/best-free-antivirus_ro...

Free AV:

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/wi...

I've used Norton and it's been the best. It's blocked many viruses that was hidden in downloads, etc. In my book Norton is the best.

Edited by deleted (Tue 13-Oct-15 15:51:17)

Except Norton kills the performance of your system.

PC Advisor has just published a review of free antivirus products in their December 2015 issue:

Avast
AVG
Avira
Bitdefender
Panda
Qihoo

Some of these also share data like AVG intend. It is worth looking for 'Don't share data options'.

Post deleted by MrSaffron

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