AVG CrowdControl enables Facebook users to manage who sees their posts on the world’s largest social network
AMSTERDAM and SAN FRANCISCO – September 12, 2013 – AVG Technologies N.V. (NYSE: AVG), the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization solutions to 155 million active users, today announced its first privacy app built on the Facebook API, AVG CrowdControl. The app, which is available at facebook.com/avg, allows users to easily manage who sees their default posts for improved privacy without deleting personal contacts.
AVG CrowdControl is designed to make Facebook experiences safer by customizing who can view a status, videos and photos posted on a personal timeline. AVG’s goal is that this will make privacy and online security, a more front-of-mind issue for users. AVG CrowdControl also is integrated directly into AVG PrivacyFix™, launched last week.
“Most people have hundreds of friends on Facebook, but may not feel comfortable sharing their daily activity with such a large group, including old business colleagues, fellow students, or people who you can barely remember,” said Jim Brock, VP Privacy Products, AVG Technologies. “This is why we designed AVG CrowdControl. We believe that people will share more and have a more fulfilling experience on social networks when they know they are sharing only with the group that’s right for them.”
AVG CrowdControl scans the user’s Facebook profile and organizes their friends’ based on who they interact with most. Clicking on any friend’s image marks them to be excluded from the custom list.
Once this personalized list has been created, the app takes users to a guided screen showing them how to change the default setting and opens a new tab for them to change it – a simple two-click process. As the app is integrated into users’ Facebook accounts, the list can be easily adjusted and kept up to date as new friends are added. When the user wants to share something more broadly, they can always select all Friends or Public as the audience for a specific post.
“As Facebook makes it easier for others to explore and find your information through tools like Graph Search, it’s more important than ever to manage the audience for your online life. AVG CrowdControl makes it quick and easy to get the defaults right.” Brock continued. “We understand from young people that it’s a bad move to un-friend people, but still they wanted to easily limit who sees their stuff on Facebook. It’s great to have lots of online friends; but it’s even better to have control what they can see about you.”
About AVG Technologies (NYSE: AVG)
AVG’s mission is to simplify, optimize and secure the Internet experience, providing peace of mind to a connected world. AVG’s powerful yet easy-to‐use software and online services put users in control of their Internet experience. By choosing AVG’s software and services, users become part of a trusted global community that benefits from inherent network effects, mutual protection and support. AVG has grown its user base to 155 million active users as of June 30, 2013 and offers a product portfolio that targets the consumer and small business markets and includes Internet security, PC performance optimization, online backup, mobile security, identity protection and family safety software.
