Anti-Virus + VPN

PIAanonuser

Hello,

This is my first post and I couldn't find any info on the forums about this. Ever since I've learned about VPN's it has opened my eyes to the world of privacy. I've now come to the realization that anti-virus programs such as Avast, AVG, McAfee and the likes, all log info such as URL's visited, time visited, IP, and much more. I'm sure many other apps do as well. Here is an exact reference from McAfee:

"In addition to the above, we may also collect other information related to user interactions with or use of our Services (“Usage Data”). Much of this Usage Data, for example, clickstream data and aggregate usage statistics, is generally not personally identifying. On the other hand, some of this Usage Data either alone or when combined or linked with your Personal Information, may allow your identity to be discovered. In such cases, we treat the combined data as Personal Information. In many cases, Usage Data is gathered automatically by systems or technology such as cookies (see more information about Information Collected Automatically below). 
The following are examples of the type of Usage Data that may be collected by McAfee from your web browser or related to your interactions with our products and services:

1. Details about your computers, devices, applications, and networks (including IP address, browser characteristics, device ID, operating system, and language preferences);

1. Activities on our websites and usage patterns of products and services (including referring URLs, dates and times of website visits, and clickstream data);

1. Details about Internet, App, or network usage (including URLs or domain names of websites you visit, information about applications that attempt to access your network, or traffic data);

1. Data about files and communications, such as potential malware or spam (which may include computer files, emails and attachments, email addresses, metadata, and traffic data, or portions or hashes—a hash file is a file that has been converted into a numerical string by a mathematical algorithm—of any of this information)."

My question is this:

When using a VPN like PIA, do Anti-Virus programs (and other apps with such permissions) still have the ability to monitor your URL traffic and the like? 
I'm also using PIA in combination with the browser Duckduckgo.  This same scenario is on my Android as well as Windows computer.

Any insight would be much appreciated, as it seems that if these apps are able to see where you're visiting, it negates the purpose of a VPN.

Thank you.

Max-P

Yes, your antivirus still have the ability to do whatever they want. In fact, if they really wanted to, they could easily bypass the VPN because antivirus runs fairly deep in the kernel while PIA is just a normal app. They monitor this by hooking directly into every software you run, as well as on the network stack. PIA can only protect you against your ISP and government, but sadly cannot do anything for your local computer (without severely interfering with antivirus).

PIAanonuser

Would you recommend not using an anti-virus? It just seems that a VPN is useless if the very thing you're being private about (which is your data) is being 100% siphoned by your anti-virus. 

Am I reading this right in McAfee's privacy agreement that they store all your websites visited? Is this anonymous or is this personally identified? 

Max-P

I don't really know. It's hard to know what they do with your data or how they store it without being a McAfee employee. Their privacy statement states something, but it doesn't mean it's enforced in any way on a technical level.

I would imagine they only store hashes of it in an anonymous form so they can compare what software people have installed and essentially use their users to judge if a piece of software is likely dangerous or just a new popular app.


I personally don't use an antivirus, but I don't actually have any physical installation of Windows either and tend to only visit known good places. If anything is to happen I can just rollback my VM to a clean state and continue from there. I've heard for most people, Windows Defender is good enough but I know a lot of people who wouldn't use their computer without an antivirus, so it's a very opinionated topic for sure.

PIAanonuser

Thank you for your responses.

I guess the last question is, am I right to think my privacy is no longer really protected knowing that these kinds of terms exist within an anti-virus ToS.  Or am I just being paranoid in thinking that every URL I've ever visited (using a VPN or not) is logged by these companies in an identifiable way?

As the ad on the side of this page says, 'Big Brother is watching. Get your privacy back." If any of these anti-viruses are forced to cooperate with the government (which we could for purposes assume is true), then basically there's no way to use an anti-virus and "get your privacy back". 

juancarlos66

This was a question I was going to ask. Since starting to use PIA I have un-installed my regular antivirus and just use Windows Defender. All seems ok up to now.
I make regular backups so can roll back if anything bad happens.

Harry2

juancarlos66 said:

This was a question I was going to ask. Since starting to use PIA I have un-installed my regular antivirus and just use Windows Defender. All seems ok up to now.
I make regular backups so can roll back if anything bad happens.

Widows Defender is at present the best you can get for Virus/Malware/Ransomware important to use as using a anonymous provider means if you pickup malware your info ceases to be private, your only hint will be your internet speed slows  and computer

[Deleted User]

Thanks! Will read this.

waqasali1

Antiviruses have the main duty to maintain your devices free from malware. Malware is software that is the reason of doing harm. This is the type of threats trying to challenge the antivirus installed on your PC, Mac, and smartphones. Check out https://thevpn.guru/vpn-vs-antivirus/ for more info. When it comes to VPN security though reliable, public networks provides “free” Wi-Fi that can be a source for criminal activity, because they’re simple for bad actors to gain admittance as they are for you and me. Like Packet sniffers, they can be benevolent tools for aiding network admins troubleshoot matters. They can easily be utilized to observe network traffic on wireless networks. It’s also impartially easy, given the proper technical perks, for cybercriminals to manage routers with man-in-the-middle attacks. Using this strategy, they’re capable to seize routers for the sake of seeing and dealing all traffic traveling among a device and the network they now control.