Norton AntiVirus Plus vs Surfshark Antivirus Comparison

• AntiVirus Plus for 1 device, renewal: $59.99 a year after the first year; the cart says the plan 'Automatically renews at $59.99/ year'
• AntiVirus Plus for 1 device, first year: Intro: $29.99 for the first year
• AntiVirus Plus for 5 devices, renewal: $84.99 a year after the first year ($39.99 in the first year); from the cart
• Norton 360 Deluxe for 5 devices, renewal: $124.99 a year after the first year ($49.99 in the first year); from the cart

• Surfshark One, renewal: $99 a year after the first term, whether that term was 1 or 2 years
• Surfshark One, month to month: $19.95 billed every month, no discount
• Surfshark One, first 2 years: Intro: $67.23 for the first 27 months (24 plus 3 bonus months), then $99 a year
• Surfshark One, first year: Intro: $44.85 for the first 15 months (12 plus 3 bonus months), then $99 a year
• Surfshark One+, renewal: $119 a year after the first term

The Products Privacy Notice (last updated 25 Sep 2026) lists, for the desktop security products, 'Files identified as potential or known malware (36 months)', file metadata including file paths, application names, and 'URLs/Websites visited and associated metadata (36 months)', used among other things for 'file sample analysis'. Norton's settings article says Norton Community Watch sends information about potential security risks to Norton and, when a possible risk is detected, information on running processes, visited URLs and general system information; it can be switched off, but 'critical data will still be sent even if this option is turned off.' On phones, Safe SMS collects text messages that contain links or come from senders not in your contacts and keeps them, with personal identifiers removed, for up to five years.

Surfshark says Cloud Protect checks suspicious files against its cloud database in real time 'without ever seeing your personal data', but neither the product pages, the help center nor the privacy policy say whether a file's fingerprint or the file itself is sent.

Gen Digital's General Privacy Notice, which Norton's Privacy Center says applies to Norton, says 'We do not sell your personal data to third parties', but also that the group uses data 'to serve you with relevant advertising and content, both on our properties and on third-party properties' and that 'Where permitted by applicable law, we may share personal data with third parties for advertising purposes.' Norton's cookies and analytics notice lists Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Quantum Metric, AppsFlyer, Singular and Firebase as analytics tools in its products. The App Store listing of the iPhone app says identifiers and usage data 'may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies'. The desktop app shows promotional notifications by default; they can be switched off in Settings.

The privacy policy's antivirus section uses device information to enforce the device limit and processes the malware name and type, country, OS and user ID for statistics. Separately, with your consent, the apps send device and engagement data to analytics and attribution providers, and the policy says advertising partners help attribute sales and show interest-based ads. The policy says Surfshark does not sell personal data.

Norton is a brand of Gen Digital Inc., whose privacy team is in Tempe, Arizona; the group's general privacy notice says it may disclose data to public authorities and in legal proceedings. For users in the European Economic Area the controller of personal data for Norton products is NortonLifeLock Ireland Limited in Dublin, so EU data protection law applies to them.

The contract is with Surfshark B.V., registered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The terms of service are governed by the law of the British Virgin Islands.

Norton was a consumer brand of Symantec. On 4 November 2019 Symantec sold its enterprise security business to Broadcom and renamed itself NortonLifeLock Inc.; on 7 November 2022 NortonLifeLock took the name Gen Digital Inc. The company is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol GEN.

Surfshark B.V. sells the antivirus as part of its own subscription. The privacy policy says it shares data with its group companies in the EEA, the United States and the United Kingdom, without naming them.