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PSA: That free antivirus might be selling your browsing data
I used to think free antivirus was fine until I read a privacy report from EFF.org last month that showed how one popular free program was tracking and selling user data to advertisers. Switched to the built-in Windows Defender and a browser extension instead. Anyone else dig into what their 'free' security tools are actually doing?
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charlesb423mo ago
Honestly it's the same pattern everywhere now. Go to any "free" weather app or flashlight app and they're tracking your location history and selling it to data brokers. I noticed this when I downloaded a simple calculator app on a friend's phone and it asked for permission to access my contacts and microphone. Like why does a calculator need that? The whole "if you're not paying for the product you are the product" thing is real. Just switched to open source alternatives for everything and it's been way less sketchy.
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stella_roberts3mo ago
Used a free anti-malware tool a few years back that came bundled with a browser toolbar. Deleted it after a week because my search results were full of ads and my homepage kept changing. Last straw was when my grandma called me asking why her computer had a new "security certificate" popup that looked like it was from 1999. She was too scared to click anything. Told her to just use what came with Windows and she's been fine since. Sometimes the simplest option is the most painful to explain to older relatives.
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