My new computer came with Norton Internet Security 2011, which comes with Norton Safe Web. I installed Firefox 4, which is showing a Norton toolbar, and now I'm seeing Norton ratings on each page I visit, featuring a green "OK" icon. They embed these within Google search result pages too.
I can't seem to find anything on the web about how this is being done. I guessing that my browser is sending all of my page requests to Norton, so they can add everything about my browsing to their database which they cross reference to my subscription info?
Can anyone confirm, deny, or expand upon this?
Best Answer
According to Norton's Safe Web website:
To do this, the toolbar has to send the website to Symantec, which then replies with the "safety level", and the toolbar inserts the rating icons on the page. Surprisingly, I can't find any information about what information the toolbar is sending to Norton.
If you don't like the extension, you can always uninstall the Safe Web software, or remove the toolbar from Firefox. Firefox includes it's own malicious content checking (as does Google's search results).
For what it's worth, I much prefer using Microsoft's Security Essentials antivirus/anti-malware over Norton. Security Essentials is quiet and unobtrusive, and so far it's caught everything the web's had to send at me.
Edit:
I just tried to install the Norton Safe Web Lite toolbar (the free version), and I was able to see (but not copy/paste...) the license agreement, which has a rather large section on privacy. I imagine it's the same or very similar to what you "agreed" to by having their software pre-installed on your laptop.
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