- Jun 21, 2011
- 589
Avast under investigation for the sale of personal data to third-parties.
- Thread starter Bryan320
- Start date
Why not stay with Defender without selling your data?
- Jun 21, 2011
- 589
two problems
avast has a ton of ads
they sell their paid costumers
avast has a ton of ads
they sell their paid costumers
- Jun 21, 2011
- 589
well i went to gdata ...it is heavy as an elephant but it is a choice i made for the rest of the year
As I keep reading nasty comments about Avast selling customers data and as I deeply hate FUD I would like to point out that:
1.) Avast has stopped doing business with customers data. That has happened in january and we are now in july.
2.) The data collected has always been anonymized and aggregated. Someone has suggested that such data could be deanonymized but, as far as I know, there isn't any proof to support those suppositions. If I'm wrong please post a link to those proofs.
A Message From Avast's CEO | Avast
I believe that discussions in a community so involved in security matters should be much more informed than that. I also think that doing such business is a wrong choise by a security vendor and I'm glad that Avast has moved on. Anyway, it is not necessary to spread FUD in order to criticize such choices.
1.) Avast has stopped doing business with customers data. That has happened in january and we are now in july.
2.) The data collected has always been anonymized and aggregated. Someone has suggested that such data could be deanonymized but, as far as I know, there isn't any proof to support those suppositions. If I'm wrong please post a link to those proofs.
A Message From Avast's CEO | Avast
I believe that discussions in a community so involved in security matters should be much more informed than that. I also think that doing such business is a wrong choise by a security vendor and I'm glad that Avast has moved on. Anyway, it is not necessary to spread FUD in order to criticize such choices.
- Jun 21, 2011
- 589
a CEO may come out and say anything he wants but the fact is that they did not come out and warned their costumers ....hey we are gonna sell you guys ..... in the first place
secondly they will have to really try hard nd it takes some time to regain their trust
just a personal opinion
secondly they will have to really try hard nd it takes some time to regain their trust
just a personal opinion
- Mar 28, 2019
- 569
The problem is when you break someone trust, and security software is based on trust.
- Nov 26, 2016
- 699
- no it doesn't. Upselling their functions is not "ads" and after using avast! Free for some time till just few days ago I haven't seen a single ad for any of their features even. Only few pointers on "new" things they offer. Once I went through those, they were gone.
- no they don't. Data collection was the same for all users if they agreed to it.
It's just funny how entire world is outraged over avast! while typing that outrage on Android device and complaining over it on Facebook. If those people actually gave two f**ks over data collection they wouldn't be using either of two and they'd also be regulated like years ago. Instead avast! was thrown under the bus, but Google and Facebook, totally a OK.
Reason I'm so neutral to avast! is because I've had Privacy settings for data collection unchecked since avast! 5 and was thus not even affected by all of it. It's not helping their general image though and most users are exaggerating the whole thing far beyond what it really was.
- Aug 4, 2016
- 1,465
Once bitten twice shy - Fool me once, shame on you (Avast) - Fool me twice, shame on me 
- For me there are many solutions that are superior to Avast? It's similar to phrases such as customer experience program on other products, few people have any idea what that actually means on a program - The settings on Avast & the rest to send telemetry most or all members on here understand the implications, again from personal experience the average no savvy users will leave well alone making the assumption an AV setting are optimal, & or indeed worried to change default settings?
- For me there are many solutions that are superior to Avast? It's similar to phrases such as customer experience program on other products, few people have any idea what that actually means on a program - The settings on Avast & the rest to send telemetry most or all members on here understand the implications, again from personal experience the average no savvy users will leave well alone making the assumption an AV setting are optimal, & or indeed worried to change default settings?
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They got caught red-handed.
Google is known to collect data, as their business evolves around it.
I don't personally use Facebook to comment.
- Nov 26, 2016
- 699
Well, they didn't. If users don't read a damn thing and just agreeing, that doesn't make them "caught red handed". I knew all along that their Jumpshot subsidiary is selling stuff and thus I had all the data sharing settings disabled since version 5 and they didn't even own Jumpshot back then afair.
I respect your opinion but if you say that if someone becomes a customer of Avast their personal data is going to be sold to third parties, you're not stating the truth.
Correct!
But it is quite different to say that Avast is selling user data. That equals spreading FUD.
actually it has never been a secret. Here's Avast explaining their activity on their blog, in 2015:
Avast Data Drives New Analytics Engine
that is all we are talking about, Avast doing Google's job. It hasn't been a wise choise and they are now paying for it.
What happened is just a lot of clickbait articles spreading all over the web.
Again, this is FUD. Be aware.
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Why did they immediately shut down their operations, if it was clearly documented and legal business?
because it is now hurting their business and it proved to be a bad choise
I hope you have read some of the comments on this forum and others about GDPR and Avast and how the tickboxes had to be opt in rather than opt out.
If the Czech government is running a probe and it is not dismissed yet, it means this was not as innocent as we think. It may turn out to be fine in the end, but if it's taking so long, there's a cause for concern.
That being said, I have observed recent versions of Avast/AVG (April onwards) are not as intrusive anymore and I think they've now added GDPR compliance into the program. So the products should be okay to use now.
Avast's official position has been that we've always given a choice to not collect this data. There's no explicit denial.
Avast CFO battles to keep anti-virus giant on track - The CFO
Phil Marshall, finance chief of the world’s biggest protection software provider, reveals in an exclusive interview how £1bn was wiped off its share price- days before coronavirus struck
www.financialdirector.co.uk
I tested the product in January, the opt-in was there. I've not used Avast products before so I can't say. Let's see what comes out from the probe.
- Mar 28, 2019
- 569
It's an AV company, not a marketing company.
It's not fair for the normal user that simply click next next for installing an AV hoping to be PROTECTED and not just another company selling your data just because you don't read everything (and they know the normal user don't read everything, they take advantage of that).
You're right, maybe it's not illegal, but it's at least unethical since it's a company made to protect you and your data, it doesn't matter if they are not selling the data to hackers, but just the act of selling it's not fair.
It's not fair for the normal user that simply click next next for installing an AV hoping to be PROTECTED and not just another company selling your data just because you don't read everything (and they know the normal user don't read everything, they take advantage of that).
You're right, maybe it's not illegal, but it's at least unethical since it's a company made to protect you and your data, it doesn't matter if they are not selling the data to hackers, but just the act of selling it's not fair.
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