If you search for Avast or AVG on the official Mozilla Add-ons website, you may notice that it will not return any results. Neither Avast Online Security nor SafePrice will appear, nor AVG Online Security or SafePrice.
It seems that Mozilla has removed these extensions from its Store. So when you try to open one of the Avast or AVG extension URLs, you get an error message saying “Oops! We can’t find the page.”
However, extensions are not included in Mozilla's blacklist . Extensions that are on the blacklist are removed from users' browsers.
The Avast and AVG extensions appear to have been removed but not blocked, meaning the extensions remain installed and enabled in Firefox for now.
Mozilla added several dozen Firefox extensions to the blacklist on December 2, 2019, which collected user data without their consent, but Avast extensions are not included in this list.
What happened?
Wladimir Palant, the developer of AdBlock Plus, published an analysis of Avast extensions in late October 2018 on his personal website. He discovered that the Avast extension was transmitting data to Avast, which provided the company with information about your browsing history. The data the extension was sending was not necessary for the extension to function, according to Palant.
Avast, on the other hand, states on its privacy policy page that it uses anonymous Clickstream data for “direct marketing between products, cross-product and third-party trend analysis.”.
Mozilla appears to be in talks with Avast, according to Wladimir Palant. It's possible that Mozilla will add the extensions to its blacklist or ask Avast to make changes to the extensions before reinstating them.
The extensions are still available for Google Chrome at this time.
