Web security firm AVG has already demonstrated its dedication to user privacy by adding Do Not Track capabilities to its software. Now it appears to be doubling down on that with the purchase of small web privacy firm PrivacyChoice.
PrivacyChoice was founded in 2009 offers one flagship product — a powerful browser extension called Privacyfix that analyzes your activity on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google and shows you how exposed your information is. For example, PrivacyFix analyzed my Facebook info and found that my exposure to Graph Search is quite high and that Facebook tracks my activity on 89 percent of sites I regularly visit. (Yes, this freaks me a out a little.)
“Since founding, our mission has been to deliver more effective and more informed choices about how your data is collected, used, and shared,” PrivacyChoice founder Jim Brock said in a statement. “We saw strong synergies between our approach and the efforts AVG continues to make in empowering people when it comes to their online privacy.”
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Privacyfix is currently available for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, but it will soon be available for Internet Explorer as well. AVG also promises that Privacyfix will come to iOS and Android phones and tablets some time “this year.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Brock will become Vice President of Privacy Products for AVG along with the acquisition.
Check out an example of the Privacyfix dashboard below:
Privacy sign via rpongsaj/Flickr
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