Glen Rockford, the privacy program manager for CR’s Digital Lab, says companies need to make such policies explicitly clear (in writing and in legally binding documents) so that consumers know at all times which policies apply. privacy policies, according to CR’s review. Tony Anscombe, ESET’s chief security evangelist, released a similar statement saying that “for privacy concerned users, we limit the amount of personal data to the minimum required in order to activate the product.”īoth companies told CR that they extend protections provided under Europe’s relatively robust GDPR privacy law to users worldwide, but those protections are not fully outlined in their U.S. “We do not share the personal information of our users with third parties,” the company says, “except for specific reasons like legal obligations, hosting services, support channel communications, and marketing services for our own needs.” In response to our data-privacy findings, Bitdefender released a statement saying the personal information of users is collected only when necessary and only used to “maintain, improve, and build better services.” That list includes Avira Free Security Suite, Avira Antivirus Pro, Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition, and Bitdefender Internet Security. Other Windows programs lost recommended status primarily due to protection performance concerns. And that was enough to pull Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac below recommended status. Our testers found that the company did not grant users sufficient ability to control their personal data, enough information to fully grasp how the data might be shared, and assurance that data collection is limited to what’s required for the operation of the product.īitdefender received a Good data-privacy score, but our testers found similar concerns with the controls for personal data use and the info on how data might be shared. A few antivirus programs that previously had earned a CR recommendation no longer do.ĮSET Internet Security (Windows) and ESET Cyber Security Pro (Mac) both lose the distinction, in large part because of ESET's Fair data-privacy score. The analysis is based on an evaluation of publicly available materials, including privacy policies, terms of use, and service statements.Īs a result, you'll see some significant changes in the rankings. And it factors in the ability each company gives you to control your data. The score is a measure of how the company says it collects, shares, and uses your data. This year, for the first time, we've also given each of the programs a data-privacy score, using the open-source guidelines outlined in the Digital Standard.

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