Firefox Addons from AVG/AVAST back in store

[German]The antivirus addons from AVG and AVAST, which has been removed from Mozilla addon store early this months are back now. It seems that the vendor has resolved the issues with Mozilla.

Some background

Early this months I've reported within the blog post Mozilla removed Firefox Addons from AVG/AVAST, that Mozilla's developers have blocked (or removed) AVG and AVAST antivirus addons in Firefox from Mozilla addon store. The suspicion was, that it might have to do with an article by Wladimir Palant. Palant is the founder of Adblock-Plus. He had documented in October 2018 that AVAST antivirus products were spying on users.

In a statement I received from AVAST, the vendor claims: Mozilla has recently updated its store policy and we are liaising with them in order to make the necessary adjustments to our extensions to align with new requirements. The Avast Online Security extension is a security tool that protects users online, including from infected websites and phishing attacks. It is necessary for this service to collect the URL history to deliver its expected functionality. Avast does this without collecting or storing a user's identification.

The Addon are back in store

Now AVAST informed me, that the AVG and AVAST antivirus addons for Firefox are back in Mozilla's addon store. The browser extensions Avast Online Security and AVG Online Security are available again in both the Chrome Store and the Mozilla Store. In addition, Avast has send me their privacy statement:

"Privacy is our top priority and the discussion about what is best practice in dealing with data is an ongoing one in the tech industry. We have never compromised on the security or privacy of personal data. We are listening to our users and acknowledge that we need to be more transparent with our users about what data is necessary for our security products to work, and to give them a choice in whether they wish to share their data further and for what purpose. We made changes to our extensions including limiting the use of data and these changes are explained clearly in our Privacy Policy. Our browser extensions Avast Online Security and AVG Online Security are back on the Chrome Store, and on the Mozilla Store (since 12/17). It's important to us that users understand that we're listening to concerns about transparency and data use, and striving to do better and lead by example in this area."