The Malgorian Blog

I guess this is for anyone who uses AVG products. (Antivirus, etc)

To keep it free, they will essentially begin selling out their own users to online advertisers. More details about what exactly are going to be collected are listed here.

"AVG also adds that personal, identifiable information like addresses, age, or IPs, even if not sold, may sometimes be shared with collaborators."

In other words, they will be giving out your personal information despite saying they will not be doing so. (They just won't be -directly- selling it. It'll be more like a bonus tossed in I guess.)

Some people are defending it as "well at least they're giving a free product in exchange for your personal information. Most companies take your data after charging you for the product first." but really... is that how bad the online environment has gotten? Where having your data sold or given to people (Or hell, just collected in the first place) is OK?

People have to realize that online identity/credit/etc theft is ON THE RISE. We shouldn't be tolerating all these companies that want to grab our data as a bonus - because the idiots are often quite horrible at securing those big ass data bases they keep. And BECAUSE those databases are so huge, they become a real sweet target for online crime. Even if I trusted AVG, I don't want yet ANOTHER stockpile of personal data on the web by yet ANOTHER company looking out for itself and nobody else. Because as soon as they're hacked, their own data is only a very tiny portion of what gets stolen.

I may try to start a tag of "not so free" for shit like this. Because the cost we pay is just not measured directly in dollars. (But then you know how I am with tags.)

Against my better judgement, I was reading Kotaku comments today.

Yes, I know.

The comments of course were under the article about the whole finding of entire levels (unpopulated of course, except for 3 ghost objects you can apparently pick up) on the disc of Destiny. And the whole DLC shitstorm started again.

My bitching won't be about that in particular, I'm sure I've already bitched about it before and will do so again at a later date. I'm already formulating a way to describe all the DLC methods used with games I end up reviewing in the future. :P It's taking a long time to compile.

Anyway, one commenter made this very stupid remark. "Here's a shocker for people who hate On-Disc DLC: When you go to McDonalds and you buy french fries, there's actually a whole cooker full of fries that they AREN'T giving you. it's RIGHT THERE and they are deliberately not giving all of it to you."

I mean.... what? This isn't just off the mark, it's completely irrelevant to the situation. That cooker full of fries behind them are extra copies of the game that other people will be buying. Unless of course you actually ordered a cooker's worth of fries.

So instead, I'll give you the real comparison. Let's say you order a Big Mac. Inside a small plastic box you receive a 3-piece bun with 2 burger patties. Next to that, you are also given a locked glass jar that contains a few pickles, some lettuce, a cheese slice, and a small cup of sauce. You are not given a key to this jar. But you may purchase one for a few extra dollars. Have a nice day.