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The Federal Trade Commission recently issued its final privacy report with recommendations for best privacy practices for companies to follow, and in it, the agency lauded the Web's Do Not Track technology. It's a feature that's been getting a lot of attention lately, especially from browser makers, and now AVG is jumping on the Do Not Track bandwagon by integrating the technology into its free and paid security suites.
Introduced through a security update, AVG 2012 now includes a Do Not Trace feature that informs users about the data being collected by various websites and gives them the option of not being tracked.
"We continue to listen to our approximately 108 million-strong community and we are constantly focused and driving our research and development to the creation of innovative technologies," said AVG Technologies CEO JR Smith. "Today we deliver another important milestone with an active Do Not Track feature available in the latest version of AVG 2012 and through our latest product update for existing customers. This feature is available for free because we believe all consumers have the right to take back control of their online privacy."
Unfortunately it's not available as a free, standalone download, though it is included in AVG's freemium security suite. If you have it installed, you'll notice an eye-shaped icon in your Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer browser window that shows how many websites and advertisers are collecting data about your activity. This information is categorized into Ad Networks, Social Buttons, and Web Analytics with additional information that includes:
Armed with the above information, you can then choose whether to let it be or have AVG step in and cover your tracks. You can find out more details in AVG's blog post here.
Image Credit: AVG
Comments are closed on this article
bobla90042
March 28, 2012 at 8:22am
I use Ghostery to stop websites from tracking me. Free, seems to work great.
themohawkadmin
March 28, 2012 at 3:07pm
I second that. It's now one of my default addons that I always have installed. A few sites seem to break every now and then, but overall it works great.
LatiosXT
March 28, 2012 at 8:15am
Why do I see this as the future trend in internet security software? And I mean, used in such a way it becomes a hip marketing term?
I mean it's good, but at the same time I feel like it's the "cool" thing to do.
Ghok
March 28, 2012 at 1:39pm
Don't concern yourself too much over what is cool or what isn't cool.
This type of thing is becoming trendy because people have a real concern about their internet privacy.
I think I get what you're saying though. With software, you get a lot of people buying things they aren't really all that informed about. Sometimes marketing buzzwords are what sells the product, and it can get to a point where the term becomes meaningless.
I find tracking to be altogether stupid, though I don't really try to stop it. I tend to get a lot of ads based on what the computer thinks I'm into, and it's really not accurate. The only time it seems to get things right is when to advertises a store that I've already bought something from.
