AVG free 2014 phones home, spys on users

That's right friends, even if you opt-out of the pile, AVG with out your consent will data mine your computer and act like a Trojan spyware infection.

http://oi43.tinypic.com/11buavl.jpg

Ran some test on their 2014 free AV on a test computer that wasn't networked to see if it would attack the firewalls and try and phone home with out consent and guess what it douse !

To the best of my understanding everything that had to do with cloud,live updates,cloud storage, or any other kind of let me use the net option was disabled.

All the following with out consent will phone home ACGWDSVC.EXE , AVGMEG.EXE , AVGIDSAGENT.EXE.

I set AVG free 2014 up with a bogus proxy port and ip in case anyone was wondering.

http://oi42.tinypic.com/1yptfd.jpg
The following is a placebo effect and douse nothing, well not quite nothing.
IT LIES right to you face.

just one little part of the legal agreement, and yes you read it right, they own your computer at that point.

A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is a hacking program that is a non-self-replicating type of malware which gains privileged access to the operating system while appearing to perform a desirable function but instead drops a malicious payload, often including a backdoor allowing unauthorized access to the target's computer so as to steal everything inside.

It all so looks like a win8 GUI , makes my wanna spay crunches on my keyboard.
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

 

SCARY

 

Well that's quite a find, but how is it different from what other AVs do? Could you test Baidu and Qihoo, since they supposedly have backdoor capabilities?

 

All phone home in one way or another...
If you don't trust it simply remove it. No need to make the scoop or enter in paranoia loop!

Btw, your short post history point to privacy paranoia, no offense intended. I would think twice before discredit a reputable company working in the AV business since ages. AND... the logs you posted do not point to anything on the net... just localhost activity.

So, you may be also confused on the call home diagnostics. If you are serious and professional about your claim then have AVG been audited by an independent expert. After that come back with your results... otherwise better you silently leave this thread. FUD

 

I don't know about AVG spys but they had some problems in the past.

Windows Phone Marketplace boots AVG app

 

So, AhnLab and Avast detecting something in it may not be a FP after all? I'd say send the files to virustotal, but posting or linking the results is against ToS anyway.

As pointed out, pretty much everyone does it somehow. But at the end of the day, bugs and other problems, negligence and incompetence do more harm than any actual conspiracy for the most part.

 

Not really a find Brandonn2010 all i did was install the thing did a 3x once over on settings in order to disable anything that had to do with call home for updates of who knows but if it was going on in the settings about connecting to the net it would be disabled.

after that all i did was camp the firewall logs in the after math to see what would happen next and it looks like it phones home right left and center.


most of the AV are all doing this atm, or at lest one ones iv tested, same gos with most of the free2play games or should i say free to get spyed on.

They didn't back in the day fax, any that do with out consent are spy's.
Wrong answer bro.

As i stated, i setup the program options to point to a bogus IP and port, i didn't have to and atm i have that disabled on the test computer.

Ill reinstall the app if needed and have the computer in question connected to the net firewalled with a computer after the fact. you want more pics np lets see if i can get some.

btw i had a version now since lost of AVG then when it uninstalls it disabled all security software on the reboot\restart of the computer that is to say it would disabled everything that's like a firewall & interrupts the boot posses so that if your connected to the net it will then sends out a data burst of whatever its stolen off your computer and just to add insult to injury it then pops up your web browser and asks you what you think about that and if you want to send em some comments.

Oddly i did at the time though i cant post what i sent their way on this family oriented forum.
Offensive doesn't even come close to what i sent their way.

Of cores by doing this to a computer setup in bridged mode to the internet expose's all open ports to the internet with out any firewall or AV protection.
meaning with complete consequence decision AVG or the version i once had but no longer have a backup of would 100% kill your computer by letting it get infected by whatever was out their and would allow "example a botnet" to attack your network ports\computer when uninstalling.

why, so as to send a data burst back to home back and disabled your firewall of cores duh
Good job AVG.

Bin reading and watching what you have to say about things for a long time fax and your answer to everything is simple.

Fax most common political option when someone gets nailed red handed in computer software vender land :
I don't care what happen or if your computer exploded, if you don't trust the AV vender don't use their products and their allowed to do whatever they want to you so deal with it.

But seeing as were on the topic of zone alarm ill make a nice little post just for you to respond to, lets call it...............
"zone alarm 6 to 9 what changed and did they change their ways"

Quick answer, nothing did i have the ips it phones home to that include home base and one of em was off by , nm can't say don't want to spoil the surprise but what i found was so shocking at the time i was scared to post it.
Zone alarm is more or less pure evil.
I was ruining 6x back to back firewalls at the time and wire-shark and i have a archive on the topic, one hole month of research just for that.
your going to love it

nm the some of the ips that zone alarm9 phones home to are!
ill still do a full post on the topic just for you Fax

23.67.250.98 , 23.67.250.97 AKAMAI
209.87.211.135 zone alarm
209.87.211.136 zone alarm

ZoneLabs ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6.0 phones home

Theirs more but that's just a preview.

All i can do is camp wire-shark and a feu other apps but mostly all i can do is watch the network and see how a AV reacts once its installed after all settings get a 3x check to disable everything that has to do with {internet or cloud}

If it still phones home mostly all i can get is a ip and the fact that it did so what out consent, just like AVG.

 

Again plenty of FUD, outdated or confusing info. Either post evidence of AVG spying on users or better you shut up

 

I think every AV will "phone home" these days. It's time to cut off your internet connection.

 

That's correct, lol

 

Just checked out baidu AV real fast like, looks like pure cloud AV and therefor is a wast of my time to see if it phones home seeing as that's all it douse all day long as it feeds off your hdd.
Take a wile guess as to what that translates in to privacy wise.

As for Qihoo 360 Anti-Virus

May operate without Internet connection.
O'relly ?
lets find out

This will be disabled if its in the pc version and or anything that so much as hits as to using cloud.

Ps i don't care who wins the top 3 virus detection shootout, of cores cloud based will win seeing as its a permanent vampire on your hdd, i rate best to worse based on how much your AV acts like spyware.

And yes i know doing it old school means its slower to react, do i care ? half the battle when your on the net is street smarts and theirs a limit to how much you can do to protect people from their self's and their foolish use of a computer.

For a public internet cafe ya i would use 100% cloud spyware AV, for home use ...never.. seeing as half of em out their are the very thing they claim to protect you from and are no different.

For the record Mr Astroturfing are you threatening me ? Defamation\Libel laws only work if someone is lying and im not the one doing so atm

You can firewall AVG then its all good, doesn't change the fact it hammering the firewall, though its very quite of late ..i wonder why, guess ill give it a mouth full of DVD retro virus from the win95 days and see what happens.
Maybe that will ~snipped~ it off some and get the firewall logs to light up once more.

AVG was downloaded from here in case anyone was wondering, i have copy's of all the offline installers.
avg offline installers

 

Not threatening, just reporting that you are posting nonsense about AGV spying on users. Again either post evidence about AVG spying on users with concrete data and packet content or stop trolling in here

 

Reporting to who ?

The people that pay for your option online and to spy on places like wielders ?
Im not the one trolling atm or trying to crash a Forum thread or panicking and pushing the forum moderator thingy like mad ...
Wasn't i the one that was paranoid a min ago or so you claimed

Ok so seeing as in your option firewall logs mean nothing, do you want me to use wire shark ?

I know how to use that one well

Or maybe a You-Tube of your friends AV software doing it in real time, that be best i know but sadly i don't have a cam for that kind of thing.

Or maybe someone besides me can test this topic out some, of cores that can't be you fax seeing as we all know who you work for

If it doesn't work out the way i saw it at my end, np ..i can upload the full installer to a 3rd party.
Then you can test both and see if theirs a difference size wise in the installer or otherwise.

Now you know why corporations love live installers vs real ones.

"A" they can change the code anytime they want so you don't have prof, cus you don't have a full copy on the installer and apparently a sink is starting somewhere on the net and they need to change a feu things to smoke screen the topic.

"B" they can spy and data mine your computer the min you click on install seeing as it needs a network connection to work and it douse more then just download.

At lest AVG has all the installers and even a un-installer for download, at the very lest i have to give them a +1 for that, but not the rest.

 

@Snowfall: That "Privacy and Security" disclosure is enough to deeply disturb anyone with an interest in privacy/security. Same for such software continuing to attempt cloud communications after one has gone through and disabled everything that is cloud related. Particularly in light of the former, it is not unreasonable to assume the worst of the later communications.

However, I think one would have to investigate (all of) the communications more thoroughly in order to accurately determine the degree to which the GUI enable/disable options are working and what the "seemingly non-disableable" communications are phoning home. If you agree, you might revisit sentences such as "That's right friends..." and "The following is a...".

Many people will not appreciate what you mean by that. It's difficult when the issue is as serious as this one is, but try to accept that and not waste your time. Time better spent investigating things and sharing info and/or looking for alternatives.

 

Just uninstall AVG if you dont trust them and get happy.

 

AVG Email Scanner = avgemc.exe
AVG Watchdog Service = avgwdsvc.exe
AVG Identity Protection = avgidsagent.exe

Your image doesn't show any information leaving your computer. The connection I see looks like a router IP. I don't see any
connection to any remote ports or anything showing bytes sent and received or any evidence of any private information leaving
your computer. I highly doubt you can turn off all things that connect by using the GUI.

AVG would monitor email, http and https traffic, and would need to connect to keep up to date regarding your identity.

Did you contact AVG for an explanation or did you just assume that you came up with some great revelation?

This is FUD until you can prove otherwise. I don't believe everything I read on the internet and I certainly don't believe some person on some public forum claiming some great breach of privacy by a respected security developer.

So, please contact AVG with your revelation and post back their response or leave them a link to this topic so they can respond here. They deserve the opportunity to clear things up. In fact, this should have been the first step.

It looks like the EULA is clear on the type of data collected.

 

Oups more pics, more prof.

http://oi40.tinypic.com/2cwvp7k.jpg

You forgot to add AVGgui.exe douse a DNS check when shone a fist full of virus "port 53", yes i changed my network settings some but the test computer is still not connected to the net.

You people really want the wire-shark deal don't you, np ...give me 24 hours, i do have other things to take care of as well AVG killed the USB flash drive i was using for reasons unknown.

Thing acting dead after it scanned it ...yes its what i put a pile of virus on their gos $20 worth of hardware more then likely, had to copy over the pic by using a floppy, yes i still use em.

Thats not the point bro :\

 

The avgui connection (-http://oi40.tinypic.com/2cwvp7k.jpg) more than likely is to provide the ads that you see in the gui considering you are using the free version.

 

2 DNS (port 53) resolving and one svchost on localhost. I.e. Really nothing under the sun. To be diplomatic: May be time to go back to school board and revaluate your conclusions.

 

Snowfall, what planet are you on?

There's no hidden secrets here - AVG is actually very transparent in comparison other alternatives. Just go to - "Options"-> "Advanced Settings"->"Privacy Preferences". Within that section, it clearly states, "With your permission, this software can collect anonymous data in accordance with AVG's Privacy Policy. This is used to improve your security and personalize your experience. AVG does not store any personally identifiable information and does not share any information with 3rd parties".

Then, you have options to un-tick the checkboxes if any of these do not sit well with you:

- I'd like to help AVG improve its products by participating in AVG's Product Improvement Program
- Send anonymous data about identified or suspicious threats
- Send anonymous data about this software's usage

- Allow in-the-cloud verification of threat detections
- I'd like AVG to personalize my experience by turning on AVG Personalization

Many software developers, especially security, gather the same/similar types of information from their customers. As stated, at least AVG is transparent and they provide its customers with an option to turn them off.

I would trust AVG over many other software developers any day of the week. With this level of paranoia, we may as well toss-out using software from Google and Microsoft.

Cheers,

 

We are spied on by N3A everyday, I heard?
We don't have privacy any longer in this networked world.
I mainly use Linux nowaday. But then again, Ubuntu is doing the amazon shopping/online search suggestion thing. So really, don't expect too much of privacy when we use free products. After all, there is no free lunch in this world. The software vendors have to make a living. How, maybe by sharing "customized" ads with us.

 

A thread of such overwhelming paranoia.

Maybe a visit to a psychiatrist would be more beneficial to some members.

 

If you un-install AVG, make sure there are no files, phone home, .exe, left on your machine. Probably should do that for all programs.

 

If you are going to do it, take your time with it. Given the nature of what is being sent/received, most to all of the communications should be strongly encrypted. Obviously, in order to truly understand what is being communicated and when, you will have to see the UNencrypted communications and understand their format. If you can manage to inspect that, great. However, I suspect that would be a challenge with some cloud-AV software. Even the unencrypted information you can acquire via Wireshark... host names, the timing and size of communications, possibly even full data for something they serve via HTTP, may shed some light on what is going on though. Edit: Be careful about what you share/post, especially if you aren't sure you know what it would communicate to the people who see it.

 

If you have deleted all .exe files you will get your privacy back.