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Press release

Avast Adds Privacy Tools to Its Free Browser Extension, Now Called Avast Online Security & Privacy

Avast has renamed and redesigned its free browser extension, adding a Privacy Advisor, Global Privacy Control, ad opt-out and anti-tracking to phishing defence.

Cybersecurity ASEAN editors · 2 min read

Avast, which describes itself as a global leader in digital security and privacy, has given its free browser extension a new design and a wider set of features, with protection across all the main browsers. The extension, previously called Avast Online Security, now goes by Avast Online Security & Privacy (AOSP). It pairs online protection with the company's newest Privacy Advisor, which offers automatic, context-aware guidance to help users tune their privacy settings on popular websites and services.

Avast positions AOSP as an easy, self-contained starting kit for privacy protection that also works alongside Avast Free Antivirus or Avast One. It blocks tracking, opts users out of advertising, and uses cloud-based phishing protection to speed up detection. It also supports Global Privacy Control (GPC), a built-in service that in a single step tells every participating website a user visits what that user's privacy preferences are, helping people take back control of the data they share online.

Guidance through buried privacy settings

Chandler Givens, head of consumer privacy at Avast, said the company aims to make sure everyone has effective protection for their online lives. With AOSP, he said, Avast wants to offer free protection that does not burden people by asking them to change their preferences or the way they browse.

Givens also sees demand from people who find the privacy settings of websites and social media too complicated. Those options are frequently hidden deep in menus, he said, or users do not know where to find them. The Privacy Advisor takes users directly to the key privacy settings on the sites they use most and gives them straightforward advice on keeping their personal information safe.

What the extension includes

  • Privacy Advisor: explanations and simple step-by-step instructions for adjusting and strengthening privacy settings on popular platforms including Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • Global Privacy Control: lets users set preferences for the personal data they share with websites that take part in the initiative, and passes those preferences on automatically whenever such a site is visited.
  • Advertising Opt-out: opts users out of all advertisements, or chosen ones, automatically and without Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR), which stops advertisers collecting their data.
  • Anti-Tracking: stops websites and advertisers following users' data and online behaviour to build profiles and serve personalised ads.
  • Safe Search: makes search results safer by marking malicious results with a red icon and safe ones with a green icon.
  • Phishing Protection: detects phishing sites and blocks them.

Availability

AOSP can be downloaded now worldwide and works with Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera and Avast Secure Browser. It has been translated into Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish, as well as Arabic, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean, Norwegian, Slovak, Swedish and Turkish. Avast says more languages will be added in 2022.

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