Ia bagi menjelaskan terhadap pertanyaan Senator Ron Wyden selepas extension mereka dibuang dari pelayar Mozilla.

Pada awal bulan Disember baru-baru ini, firma pembangun perisian antivirus, Avast dan AVG telah dituduh menjual data pengguna mereka. Ia mula didedahkan oleh pembangun extension AdBlock Plus, Wladimir Palant dalam blognya yang bertajuk "Mozilla and Opera remove Avast extensions from their add-on stores, what will Google do?"

"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." Wladimir Palant

Tidak lama selepas pendedahan itu, pada pertengahan Disember lalu Google juga telah turut membuang extension Avast dari Chrome Web Store.

Berikutan tuduhan itu, seorang Senator A.S bernama Ron Wyden telah mempersoalkan perkara tersebut kepada firma antivirus tersebut.

"Americans expect cybersecurity and privacy software to protect their data, not sell it to marketers. I'm looking into this troubling report about Avast and its failure to protect consumers' data."

Bertindak ke atas dakwaan tersebut, pihak Avast telah respon dengan memberikan kenyataan berikut:-

"We had a brief conversation with an aide in Senator Wyden’s office yesterday to understand and listen to their feedback. We are confident in our data processing practices and are happy to delve deeper into the conversation with the Senator’s office. We would need to consider any request for further information based on the specific nature of the inquiry."

Walaubagaimanapun, selepas beberapa minggu isu ini berlarutan, extension Avast dan AVG kini sudah kembali dibenarkan untuk ditawarkan di laman Mozilla Add-ons dan Chrome Web Store.

Sumber: Vice, Born City dan Tech Radar