At the Options screen, you can block specific types of tracking, add whitelisted websites that show ads you don't mind seeing, and include or remove filter lists to determine which types of sites and ads are blocked.Īfter installing AdBlock Plus, surf the web as you normally would. To configure the extension, right-click the AdBlock Plus toolbar icon and select Options.

You can turn off that option if you don't want to see any ads at all. The goal behind AdBlock Plus is to stop ads that disrupt your web browsing, including popups, video ads, and flashing banner ads.īy default, AdBlock Plus allows for Acceptable Ads, which are those deemed less intrusive but necessary for websites to continue providing free content. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Softwareĭisplay ads help pay the bills for many websites, but the ones that pop up unexpectedly in your browser can be annoying and intrusive.Avast, which owns AVG, says users don't have to worry about anything as the data collected by the company is anonymised. While Mozilla disabled the extension listings, the company said it will work with Avast to fix things while ensuring the extensions continue working for existing users.īut since these browser extensions haven't been blacklisted by any of the major Web browsers, existing users will continue to use them and these extensions will keep spying on them, notes Palant. Palant claims he reported the browser extensions to both Google and Mozilla since the company violated their users' privacy. Other data collected by these extensions can be used to determine how many tabs a user had open, which websites a user visited and how much time was spent browsing those websites. Google has removed Avast SafePrice, Avast Online Security, and AVG SafePrice from its add-on store.Īvast and AVG browser extensions were found to be collecting user data including website address, webpage title, browser version and type, user operating system, and other details. Google hasn't put out a statement on why it chose to remove these browser extensions. As of now, only the AVG Online Security browser extension remains available on the Chrome Web Store. Google has removed the Avast and AVG browser extensions from the Chrome Web Store. To give you an idea of their popularity, Avast has around 400 million users. Opera and Mozilla removed the extensions earlier this month and now Google has joined them by removing all the extensions from the Chrome Web Store except for one. These Avast and AVG browser extensions were available on Opera, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.

This user data could enable the company to analyse users' browsing sessions.

In October this year, the developer of AdBlock Plus, Wladimir Palant revealed how Avast and AVG extensions published on several popular Web browsers' add-on stores were collecting user data.

Avast online security extension chrome