Does avast software have a backdoor installed for the NSA or other government agencies which would give them remote access to the users machine?
Thanks,
No.
NO.
NSA and others don’t need a backdoor in avast! to get in. They have their own programs that can do that.
ask the OS makers first 
NSA have their own drop down menu to look at whatever they like with “XKeyscore",
NSA tool, to collect ‘nearly everything a user does on the Internet’.
Third party software has nothing to do with their surveillance.
polonus
I would hope not… Just as much as I love Avast, that much I would feel betrayed by it’s programmer(s), owners, if it was ever found out that there is one… It would be shameful on their part. I cannot believe as it is how many companies have betrayed their customers by secretly allowing government(s) to spy on any one citizen with such ease. For whatever reasons. More companies need to stand out and protect their clients’ information with more austerity.
Not when such a company can be forcibly shut down for alleged violations of national security laws. It’s either out of business, or it faces a very expensive court battle that could force it into bankruptcy anyway, and then it still could go out of business. Which is the better choice of two evils? NSA is the one to watch, not any supposed backdoor in avast!.
avast! is not the problem here.
Read what Bruce Schneier has to say on airgap computers and evading NSA surveillance,
according to me a futile operation.
- Rule 1, Do not connect to the Internet!
His article is here: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/10/149481/
Oh and don’t forget keep your screens at a park-length distance from preying eyes.
Think this is a senseless discussion, while we already are living in a completely transparant society.
So act as you are aware of that all the time and all of the time -
you are a fully transparent public figure -
what you share with the Internet =
what you share with the world,
polonus
+1
This should really mark the end of the discussion here, as numerous reports already displayed/shown where our privacy went. Case of the horse getting out of the barn quite some time ago, the barn door is now wide open, and data collected is already out anyways.
If you go on the internet, do not expect to have any privacy whatsoever.
Internet=no privacy.
We seem to take this one around the circle on a regular basis.
Yes the internet is an open book.
I personally don’t have delusions of grandeur thinking that anything I’ve ever had on my computer would be of interest to the NSA or any other spy agency. I mean come on. : lol
So true.
But on a serious note. If Avast! were to make a backdoor. That backdoor would become known and 200 million computers at risk by a legit AV company. avast! isn’t stupid at all, let alone to make an error like that
If by a backdoor you mean can Avast be forced to comply with a subpoena from a legitimate Government agency,
the answer would be yes. This also holds true for any other company.
Is there a deliberate back door that allows such information to be gathered without presenting the required legal documents
to obtain that information? Then the answer would be NO.
Well agree with bob3160 here.
There is a federal law and that is ECPA.
When a search warrant is received,
one has to produce to law enforcement.
That is rare and far in between.
This is an example from a popular app and what it shares:
http://blog.snapchat.com/post/64036804085/who-can-view-my-snaps-and-stories
polonus
What a very paranoid society we live in today as this very thread clearly demonstrates.
Hi Arnold72,
What a very paranoid society we live in today as this very thread clearly demonstrates.I think that quote is the understatement of the year.
The NSA-revelations had some real impact, and that goes beyond questions about back doors and law enforcement.
It means that we can no longer trust the very Internet structures we depend our security/privacy on,
like for instance PKI (Public Key Infrastructure).
Who could/would stop NSA from producing a national security letter to demand Verizon to hand over their CA-certs for instance?
That is a far more serious implication than whatever back door,
as malcreants and cyberbrigands play with back doors all the time,
polonus
The paranoid society resides in Washington DC.
They are made up of must of those that we (someone) elected. 