Malwarebytes VPN Privacy and ToU?

[Outernaut]

I expect that Malwarebytes Privacy Guard AKA VPN service(?), due to the nature of the product would have a separate Privacy and Terms of Use policies strictly for the VPN service. I am unable to find any reference to VPN and Privacy except in the general Privacy Policy (<--is a link BTW) a very vague "The Malwarebytes Privacy application does not collect or retain the following:" listing a few things it does not collect. You'll need to scroll down about 1/3rd of the way to see the brief on the VPN. I could think of a 100k things that could be added as 'not collected.'

I would like to know what it does collect and retain. Is there a place not shown on the pages where these can be found for VPN?

Thanks 

~O~

[exile360]

Greetings,

Please refer to item #3 of the FAQ located here which states:

3. What is your logging policy?

A: Since privacy is at the core, we’ll validate the license key and ensure proper client functionality, but that's it. We don't track or store your online activity, whether it’s browsing or accessing any websites.  For additional information see our privacy policy.

[exile360]

By the way, just for reference, this info is also documented in this support article.  I don't know if the app itself collects any kind of telemetry the way that Malwarebytes for Windows does, however I suspect it would include an option to opt out of doing so if it did, just as Malwarebytes for Windows does as does Malwarebytes Browser Guard, both of which have options to turn off telemetry collection in their settings.

Edited September 9, 2020 by exile360

[Outernaut]

4 hours ago, exile360 said:

just as Malwarebytes for Windows does as does Malwarebytes Browser Guard, both of which have options to turn off telemetry collection in their settings.

Thanks for the extra info @exile360. As a side note, I wonder why all, every last one of them that uses any kind of stalking be it cookie that tracks, or Beacons that stalk, is it that billions must waste trillions of minutes opting-out instead of opting-n. The real Internet was never like that. We had freedoms back then and not forced to protect our rights to privacy. But kids raised on BigBro's do this, don't do that... seem to have no problem giving up their rights. Weird how things evolve.

Thanks again, I'll be sure to help waste some of those trillions

~O~

 

[exile360]

Yes, it's a sad reality of the technology we use today and the companies that drive the industry (many of which you've probably never heard of, yet they track you and market to you across the web and trade in your information).  What concerns me more is what AI might do with it once that technology becomes a reality, potentially becoming capable of deducing far more about us than any human could based on our browsing patterns and other seemingly innocuous data; patterns no human would be capable of deciphering or connecting with seemingly disparate traits, and possibly using those deductions to determine how best to manipulate us in any number of ways for the gain of whoever owns/controls it (I'm referring to true AI, as in actual thinking machines, not the complex algorithms and decision trees we have today).

It really goes back to AOL and the .com boom of the 90s.  Back then, everyone was trying to figure out how to profit from this new 'information superhighway', eventually discovering that the use of targeted advertising and the selling of user data to marketers was far more profitable than most online businesses (this is Google's primary source of income after all, and Microsoft is quickly trying to catch up with them, meaning that OS you're running is tracking even more of what you do than Google is, at least if you're running Windows 10).

With that said, as a former employee of Malwarebytes, I know that they aren't collecting anywhere near the level of data gathered by most applications and they keep it strictly to the most basic information about your installation and usage which might prove useful to the Developers for discovering and troubleshooting bugs and issues with the software as well as providing data to drive improvements in the software to make it easier to use.  They aren't selling or trading your information with anyone (and in fact, their own Malwarebytes Browser Guard actually blocks some of the trackers/cookies used on this very forum to protect your privacy from the likes of Google, something that brings a big fat smile to my face every time I think about it ).

It's a long read, but if you check out the more general stuff at the beginning and end of the Malwarebytes Privacy Policy, it's actually pretty transparent and illustrates far less intrusiveness than most I've seen/read and you can get details on what is collected by each service/application as well, so the 'why' is all right there and they even translate the legalese to plain English so that even I can understand it (I speak tech, not legal, so I'm grateful for that fact).

Edited September 10, 2020 by exile360

[gatortail]

As stated in the policies shared, Privacy has a strict no logging policy which includes no trackers.