Avast BreachGuard is an advanced privacy solution that prevents your personal information from being exploited online for profit. This article explains how to start using Avast BreachGuard.

Check for breaches

To check if your sensitive info has been exposed in a data breach:

1. Open Avast One, hover your cursor over the side menu and select Avast BreachGuard. If you are not signed into your Avast Account, select Sign in and follow the on-screen instructions to log into your account.
2. Click the drop-down menu to choose your country then click Continue.
3. Click Check for breaches.
4. The results are shown on the Status dashboard. Follow the instructions for each found issue.

For detailed instructions about each category, refer to the sections below.

Protect your online accounts

When Avast BreachGuard detects threats linked to your online accounts, the Risk Monitor feature shows the list of detected threats.

To resolve detected threats:

1. Select Risk Monitor.
2. Click Review next to a detected threat to start resolving the breach.
3. On the menu that appears, click Change password to open the website for the relevant service in a new browser window.
4. Sign in to the account using your current login credentials.
5. Create a new strong password via your account settings.
6. After changing your password, return to Avast BreachGuard and click Mark as resolved.
7. For each listed threat, click Review, then follow steps 3-7 above.

Your online accounts are now secure. You are notified as soon as Avast detects any additional threats linked to your online accounts.

Enable browser protection

Avast BreachGuard scans your web browsers for weak, duplicated, or breached passwords. Additionally, the application offers personalized tips to protect your online privacy by scanning your browsing history and bookmarks.

To ensure that Avast BreachGuard is protecting all of your installed browsers:

1. Select Risk Monitor.
2. Go to Settings (the gear icon).
3. Scroll down to Browser Monitoring then perform your preferred action:
   • Start protecting: Click the red (OFF) slider next to a browser so that it changes to green (ON).
   • Stop protecting: Click the green (ON) slider next to a browser so that it changes to red (OFF).
   

After you enable browser protection for a web browser, Avast BreachGuard immediately checks it for weak, duplicated, or breached passwords and notifies you about any found issues on the application dashboard. You can resolve these issues via the Risk Monitor ▸ Password Checkup.

Add a new monitored email address

Avast BreachGuard continuously monitors the internet for data breaches involving your Monitored email accounts. You can add an unlimited number of monitored email accounts.

To add a new monitored email account:

1. Select Risk Monitor.
2. Go to Settings (the gear icon).
3. Click + Add an email.
4. Type your new email address into the Add email box and click Start monitoring. If the message check your inbox to verify appears next to the email address, open your email inbox and verify that the email address is really yours.
5. Open your email inbox and locate the email from notification@emails.avast.com with the subject Please verify your email.
6. Click the Verify my email link included in the email.

When you return to Avast BreachGuard, the new email account appears on your Monitored email accounts list with a green tick to show that it is verified.

Avast BreachGuard immediately checks for weak, duplicated, or breached passwords associated with this email address and notifies you about any found issues on the application dashboard. You can resolve these issues via the Risk Monitor tile.

Send data removal requests

Personal Info Remover simplifies the complex and time-consuming task of removing your personal info from data broker databases by submitting data removal requests to the data brokers on your behalf.

Follow the steps below to send your first removal requests:

1. Open Avast BreachGuard and click Personal Info Remover.
2. In the Send removal requests form, fill out all required fields and click Request removal.

Avast immediately begins processing your removal requests. This process can take up to 48 hours.

Avast BreachGuard notifies you as soon as you need to send subsequent data removal requests. You may receive the following notifications:

• New data collectors: Avast BreachGuard has identified additional data brokers. Click the Personal Info Remover tile to submit new data removal requests.
• Re-run your requests: Avast BreachGuard recommends re-submitting data removal requests to all identified data brokers. This action is recommended every 3 months, because certain data brokers may start collecting your personal information again after removing it. Click the Personal Info Remover tile to re-submit the data removal requests.

Change your location

To set your location:

1. Select Risk Monitor.
2. Go to Settings (the gear icon).
3. Select Personal Info Remover, then use the drop-down menu to select your country.

Your location is now set.

Install browser extension

The Avast Online Security & Privacy browser extension lets you control who has access to your private data, and warns you about malicious websites and phishing scams.

To install Avast Online Security & Privacy directly via the Avast BreachGuard, select Risk Monitor then click Install extension next to your preferred web browser and follow the on-screen instructions. For detailed installation instructions, refer to the following article: Installing Avast Online Security & Privacy

We recommend installing Avast Online Security & Privacy in each of the browsers installed on your Windows device.

To learn more about Avast Online Security & Privacy, refer to the following articles:

• Avast Online Security & Privacy - FAQs
• Avast Online Security & Privacy - Getting Started

Learn about Privacy Advisor

Privacy Advisor provides step-by-step advice on how to adjust the privacy settings of your major online accounts to reduce the amount of personal information you share.

To use Privacy Advisor, select Privacy Advisor, click the drop-down arrow beside a listed recommendation, then follow the on-screen instructions.

Learn about Identity Assist

The Identity Assist feature in Avast BreachGuard allows you to speak to one of our Identity Assist experts free of charge 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Our experts offer two separate services depending on your needs:

• ScamAssist®: Our experts can investigate potentially fraudulent solicitations (including emails, letters, and phone calls) on your behalf.
• Identity Resolution: If you are a victim of identity theft, or you believe you may be vulnerable to identity theft, our experts can immediately take the appropriate action to remedy the situation.

To learn more about Identity Assist, click the Identity Assist tile on the Avast BreachGuard dashboard.

For detailed information about Identity Assist and to learn how to use this service, refer to the following article:

• Identity Assist - FAQs

Updated on: 18/09/2025