The brand AVG comes from Grisoft's first product, Anti-Virus Guard, launched in 1992 in the Czech Republic.
In January 2009, AVG Technologies acquired Sana Security, a developer of identity theft prevention software.
All are freemium products: They are free to download, install, update and use, but for technical support a premium plan must be purchased.
[7] AVG features most of the common functions available in modern antivirus and Internet security programs, including periodic scans, scans of sent and received emails (including adding footers to the emails indicating this), the ability to repair some virus-infected files, and a quarantine area (virus vault) in which infected files are held.
LinkScanner includes: Search-Shield – a safe search component that places safety ratings next to each link in Google, Yahoo!
AVG Online Shield also ensures the safety of exchanging files via instant messengers and VoIP clients.
[12] In response to complaints, AVG announced that as of 9 July 2008 "Search-Shield will no longer scan each search result online for new exploits, which was causing the spikes that webmasters addressed with us",[13] releasing a new build on that date that applies a local blacklist, then prefetches and scans only those links clicked on by the user.
[15][16][17][18][19][20] In September 2015, AVG announced that it would start tracking users for profit, analyzing their data for sale to the advertising industry.