AwayTab

While you daydream with AwayTab, the application might be able to collect your location and, possibly, other information. Thus, as excellent as the extension may sound, it might not be the right choice for you if you value your privacy and do not want the software to know your location. Another thing that caught out researchers’ attention was the fact that the tool’s website did not provide Privacy Policy and End User License Agreement documents while we were visiting it. Because of this, it was decided to classify this plugin as a potentially unwanted program. To learn more about this browser extension, we advise reading the rest of our article. In case you decide to remove AwayTab, you could use the deletion instructions placed at the end of this text.

Currently, AwayTab is available not only on its official website called awaytab.com but also on Chrome Web Store Page (chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/awaytab/homnophpjlhlpaglnfpomcambjmgceem?hl=en). The interesting part is that neither of these pages contain links leading to Privacy Policy and End User License Agreement statements. As you are probably aware, such documents are essential to any tool or software as they help users understand how a product is supposed to work, what kind of information it may gather and for what purposes it could be used, and so on. Without these statements, it is unclear if the extension can or cannot collect more information besides a user’s location.

The reason why it is possible AwayTab could track users and collect their location information is that the extension asks for a couple of permissions, and one of them asks to allow to “Detect your physical location.” The need for this piece of information could be explained by the application as a necessity to generate flight offers available in a user’s area. However, in reality, the application may not need a user’s physical information to generate flight offers, as it might be enough to know the location country or city. Some users consider their physical location to be private and so could see its collection as a violation of their privacy. If you are among such users, we recommend finding yourself a better way to find cheap flight deals.

At this point, we should mention that AwayTab works only on Google Chrome browsers, which means, for now, it cannot be encountered by users who search the Internet with different browsing applications. According to our researchers, the potentially unwanted program might be spread through unreliable pop-up ads and redirects. In other words, users could come across it after clicking shady advertisements, or they could get redirected to the extension’s homepage by adware hiding on their system. In order to avoid such applications in the future, we could suggest a couple of things.

Firstly, it is vital that you do not download tools that come from unreliable/unknown developers or suspicious websites/advertisements. Secondly, if you want to keep away from applications like AwayTab, you may want to check if there are no adware or other similar applications on your system that could show ads promoting such software. Lastly, as an extra precaution, we advise keeping a reliable antimalware tool that could help you identify suspicious content and guard your system from various threats.

Furthermore, the other permission that AwayTab should require is to “Replace the page you see when opening a new tab.” As a result, instead of the previous website that you used to see when opening a new tab, you should be redirected to the potentially unwanted program’s site. It has travel-related backgrounds with beautiful pictures and provides various flight deals. While this feature might look useful, keep it in mind that the extension does not provide End User License Agreement or Terms of Use documents, which makes it impossible to know what else it could do.

Potentially unwanted programs often show third-party advertising content that may come from unreliable sources. We do not say, AwayTab will necessarily act this way, but it is possible it could, and it might be best not to lose your guard with it. On the other hand, if you decide you do not want to keep it on your system, you could eliminate it with the instructions available below or a reliable antimalware tool.

Remove AwayTab

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Press ALT+F.
3. Pick More tools and click on Extensions.
4. Find the potentially unwanted program.
5. Click the Remove button near it.
6. Select Remove.
7. Close the browser