NortonLifeLock, the company responsible for some of the most popular antivirus solutions in the world, is under fire for its decision to add a cryptocurrency mining tool to its flagship security software, Norton 360. Complaints are varied, ranging from the environmental impact of practice and even the fee charged by the company for using the resource.
The feature had been publicly announced in June 2021, but has only recently been made available to most Norton 360 users. It is used to mine the cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH), the second strongest digital asset on the market today.
The mining system is configured to be disabled by default, but users will take advantage of its inclusion to question the real security of Norton 360 and to criticize both the environmental issues related to mining the digital assets and the addition of such a tool in a solution that has nothing to do with the cryptocurrency area.
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The system present in Norton 360 uses the collective computing power of the app users to perform the necessary calculations that result in the creation of new Ethereum coins. The company promotes the feature as a simple and safe way to enter the cryptocurrency market that, unlike other specialized software, does not require the shutdown of software responsible for protecting the machine against malware and other threats.
To use the software, it is necessary to have hardware compatible with the minimum requirements of the function, and Norton also offers its own digital wallet, called Norton Wallet, to store the resources.
Even among crypto enthusiasts Norton's move is being met with criticism, thanks to charging a 15% fee on all cryptocurrencies obtained by users, considered abusive since similar systems from other companies charge a maximum of 2%.
In addition, even with Norton selling the tool as a more affordable option to mine cryptocurrencies, energy and hardware costs are still the full responsibility of users, which, along with the fee charged, can end up causing them to incur losses while the company makes a profit.
Finally, the website Guru3D, responsible for the details of the crypto miner present in Norton 360, announced this Monday (10) that the company controlled by NortonLifeLock, Avira Antivirus, is also making a similar tool available in its security solutions.
The solution, which is free, also comes with the function disabled, but has differences in the transparency of the mining carried out: while Norton360 charges a fee of 15%, in the case of Avira Antivirus the value is not specified.
Read the article on Canaltech .
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