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Facebook offers just a week of free Android AV

Adds free antivirus for mobes and more security partners to AV Marketplace

Facebook has extended its security program, adding another seven vendors to the list of folks offering free anti-virus software through its AV Marketplace and also including Android security products for the first time.

But one of the Android malware zappers, McAfee’s Mobile Security, is free for just seven days, a far shorter period of time than is offered with many other trial anti-virus products.

Facebook launched the AV Marketplace back in April, saying at the time that it did so in order to educate the world and help its users stay safe online. The Social Network has not disclosed how the its partnerships work on the marketplace, but says “over 30 million” folks have used the service since launch.

That the program has now been expanded to include avast!, AVG, Avira, Kaspersky, Panda, Total Defense, and Webroot shows it's proving beneficial to Facebook (and maybe lucrative, as such arrangements are said to see software companies pay those who distribute their wares). The new six now offer free software at the Marketplace alongside launch partners Microsoft, McAfee, TrendMicro, Sophos and Symantec.

Facebook hasn't said why it chose this moment to add Android products to the Marketplace, but it is not alone in expressing worries about Android security. The USA’s Internet Crime Complaint Center(IC3), for example, last week emitted a warning about malware on the Chocolate Factory’s OS spawn.

The warning was, however, a little odd inasmuch as its warning mentioned FinFisher (which first came to light in November 2011) and Loozfon (August 2012).

Norton is the other source of free Android AV on the Marketplace. It’s product is timeless. ®

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