Is Your Antivirus Spying on You? Yes, and Some Are Worse Than Others

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In general, most the time one should trust their computer operating system and Internet security software including anti-virus software. And for name brand operating systems and Internet Security/anti-virus software one should get the updates that improve security issues and fix bugs of the software to prevent criminal groups from attacking and installing spyware, viruses, and various other unwanted software programs on one’s PC’s. But other third-party software that one installs on their PC is at a higher risk for security issues and most the time one’s anti-virus software and firewall should detect bad third-party software being installed and prevent the installation with a pop-up security alert.

I created this thread because of the new PC magazine article that was just published regarding this topic. Since I have never been an employee of the United States government or any other government in the world, I am able to create this thread because of freedom of speech laws (A thread like this could result in one getting fired from certain companies and government agencies for being politically incorrect). Over two decades ago around 2005, I theorized that in the interest of national security and world security that government agencies in the USA and around the world were working with mainstream computer operating system designers and Internet Security/anti-virus companies to use the installation of certain programs and updates to install government approved spyware on peoples PC’s to catch and stop criminals and terrorist groups around the world (this was in the interest of national security and peoples private data is supposed to be kept private, and in general the government agencies keep peoples data private but are only looking for criminal activity). I am all for using various technologies to keep people safe, by stopping terrorist groups and criminal groups, but it does come at the cost of people in the world having less privacy. I briefly mentioned this government approved spyware theory to one or two people back around 2005, and that theory ended up coming true. Something similar was going on with the unauthorized illegal spyware software that was occurring by some third party software programs designed by various criminal groups in the late 20th Century to steal peoples private information from their computers, so why not legal government approved spyware software being in existence also (A anti-virus software scan well scan and not remove or alert one to any viruses or spyware that is government approved spyware, therefore people do not known the government approved spyware is installed on their computer or Smartphone). And less than one decade later after my theory, I started seeing articles mentioning that one of the world’s most popular operating systems was working with government agencies to monitor all activity that one does on a PC, including every keystroke that one makes from a PC in the interest of national and world security (watching for certain buzz words). As soon as the PC is connected to the Internet the data transmission of every keystroke and activity is transmitted in an encrypted file to a government agency. There have been movies released that are based on true stories regarding widespread government surveillance being done to keep the nation and world safe from terrorism since data collection using video, audio, and computer data is needed to keep the world safe from criminals and terrorist groups. Most Americans and other people in the world decide to subscribe to Internet service since overall the Internet can be used as a great learning tool, communication tool, and for entertainment (but even computers not connected to the Internet can be monitored if they are connected to the power gird with special surveillance devices in a van down the road, and there is also surveillance devices to pick up EMI/RFI leakages from computer monitors or computer motherboards if one is close enough to the computer). In many ways government monitoring of its citizens and non-citizens is a good thing in order to keep the world safe from terrorism and criminal activity, however that is true as long as the world governments have a moral code that they follow to keep all other information on a person private. Smartphones and tablet PC’s also have operating systems that can also have government approved spyware installed on them. Also, phony fake Internet servers can be setup by Internet providers along with fake cloned websites that keep people away from the real website and keep people away from the real Internet.

Just recently the following new PC magazine article was published that shows more proof that government agencies sometimes use software updates to mainstream computer operating systems and Security software from Internet Security and Anti-virus companies to do government authorized spying in order to catch suspected terrorist suspects (and its good to catch terrorists and criminal groups). I have a programming background and was at the top of my class, so I have an understanding on how these technologies work. Microsoft and other major companies are mentioned in this PC magazine article. Most people do not have a computer background and even many of the best computer programmers in the world do not have time to study over 100 million lines of code in a computer operating system to see what it is doing in terms of privacy (that is why there are teams of hundreds and sometimes thousands of computer programmers working on new computer operating systems, since the task is too big for one person). Even a small security software program that might use under 100,000 lines of code is too time consuming for one programmer to work on.

Overall consumers and businesses should trust mainstream operating systems and Internet Security/anti-virus software updates since they do more good then harm. Without security software updates being installed, one’s PC becomes less secure and open to criminal groups stealing personal data from ones PC. For example, currently Windows 11 operating system is the most secure consumer operating system on the planet since the software requires the use of secure boot and the TPM 2.0 chip in order to keep consumers safe. Windows 11 is the first Windows operating system to require secure boot with a TPM 2.0 chip which keeps all the data on the solid-state drive encrypted, prior Windows operating system versions, like Windows 10 that security feature was optional. In the ideal world all operating systems should use secure boot with TPM 2.0. The only real negative thing about Windows 11 is that most the time one must buy a new PC since Windows 11 is only designed to run from the newest CPU chips that have motherboards with secure boot and TPM 2.0 support. Windows 11 is the most secure consumer operating system on the planet.

Select quotes from the PC magazine article

“A government agency could even order the security company to deliver a “special” gimmicked update to specific user IDs, perhaps to spy on terror suspects. Asked if they ever do this, India-based eScan responded that they do, as did McAfee and Microsoft. Another 11 stated they never send this kind of targeted update. The rest declined to answer, which is a bit unnerving.”

“The whole point of installing and maintaining an antivirus or security suite is to protect your privacy, your identity, and your devices. Wouldn’t it be ironic if that antivirus proved to be a security risk? According to testing data from AV-Comparatives, your antivirus needs to know a lot about your computer to protect you—everything from your PC's name to the websites you visit. Are you safe giving that information away? The answer is complicated.”

https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/is-...se-than-others

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Perhaps in a few decades or several years from now optical disc storage, USB storage, solid state drive storage, and large hard drive storage might go away with none of those consumer storage devices being made anymore. Instead, the entire computer operating system and Smartphone operating system would be in the cloud and one’s computer and Smartphone would be like a terminal with screen. The cloud uses secure encryption where only the owner of the data and government agency can view the data. With 100% of the storage being secure encrypted cloud based it would be ideal for national government agency groups and other world government agencies to fight terrorism and criminal activity. Also 100% cloud based operating systems with storage would keep computers and Smartphones really cheap. A person that travels the world with Smartphone terminals and computer terminals would be able to access ones personal data from anywhere in the world including movies and games that are streamed to the terminal screen or home theater screen. Also, the ability to use any terminal in the world since a terminal is secure since no software like spyware can be installed is a very attractive feature.

While there are positives and negatives to cloud based storage, hopefully 20 to 30 years from now solid-state drives and USB storage devices will still be able to be purchased since some people prefer not to use cloud storage.

[Doomhunter]

The problem is every website is essentially spying on and providing user data to data harvesting companies anyhow, and groups contracted or working in government buy that data. As well as non government companies that want the data for sales / marketing etc. Unfortunately, AI will make it incredibly easy for those mountains of data to be sifted and basically there will be zero private information.

[Lanegan]

Originally Posted by Doomhunter

The problem is every website is essentially spying on and providing user data to data harvesting companies anyhow, and groups contracted or working in government buy that data. As well as non government companies that want the data for sales / marketing etc. Unfortunately, AI will make it incredibly easy for those mountains of data to be sifted and basically there will be zero private information.

Use VPN.

Use settings in browsert that block spying.

Use private/secure browsers.

[bhampton]

When you want to do something fishy ... don't use a computer.


Pretty simple.