Microsoft investigating AVG antivirus Windows Phone app

http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-investigating-avg-antivirus-windows-phone-app/

 

Microsoft removes AVG app from Windows Phone Marketplace

September 9, 2011 7:45 AM PDT


Microsoft has pulled an AVG antivirus app from the Windows Phone Marketplace after learning that it was improperly gathering and sending certain user data back to AVG.

In a tweet posted yesterday, Microsoft's Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone, confirmed that the app had been removed based on the company's own investigations and research done by a couple of external experts.

Launched earlier this week, AVG's new antivirus app for Windows Phone quickly triggered concerns among users, according to WinRumors. Digging behind the scenes into the app's codebase, Justin Angel, a former Microsoft employee, and Rafael Rivera, a self-proclaimed Windows hacker and author of the Within Windows blog, uncovered the reasons for concern.

Rivera found that the app just displays ads and scans for EICAR test strings, which is simply a file used to test antivirus software. Noting that "there just isn't any malware to scan for on Windows Phone," Rivera dubbed the app "AVG-owned scareware."

Angel found that the app was improperly using a GeoLocation feature to track Windows Phone devices and send certain data back to AVG, such as the phone make and model and the user's e-mail address and location, according to WinRumors. In one of his tweets, Angel pointed to the "abuse" of the GeoLocation feature as a violation of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 certification guidelines and called for the app to be pulled from the Marketplace.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-2...moves-avg-app-from-windows-phone-marketplace/

 

Should we be concerned about privacy/security with any of AVG's other PC products? I have been using AVG LinkScanner for some time.

Thanks in Advance.

 

Besides what's included in the EULA? Joke aside, it's shameful that AVG had such behavior.

There will be a time (maybe not that far), when people can no longer trust security vendors. None of them. It's not just AVG. Others have also had past (and some recent) behaviors that make them rogue in my book.