Avast under investigation for the sale of personal data to third-parties.

[Bryan320]

Avast under investigation for the sale of personal data to third-parties

It’s fair to say that Avast has been engaging in some rather sketchy behavior over the past couple of years. These include a privacy controversy with CCleaner back in 2018, and then a couple of weeks ago it was revealed that Avast Free Antivirus was sending browser history to marketers.

betanews.com

 

[Bryan320]

Czech Authorities to Investigate Avast Over Sale of Users' Browser Histories

'There is a suspicion of a serious and extensive breach of the protection of users’ personal data,' the Czech Republic's Data Protection Authority said on Tuesday.

www.pcmag.com

 

[EndangeredPootis]

I dont get it why people are so surprised about this, its been known for years they have been doing this, and microsoft, google, facebook and kaspersky does exactly the same thing avast does.

 

[Marko :)]

 

[Marko :)]

I dont get it why people are so surprised about this, its been known for years they have been doing this, and microsoft, google, facebook and kaspersky does exactly the same thing avast does.

Google actually isn't selling any user data; they just sell the ad space on their services.

 

[Chuck57]

I don't know what FB does with their spying but I can sure vouch for the fact they follow, or used to follow you around. I'm using blockers now. Facebook is anti gun, but curiously when I was looking at Smith and Wesson's page some time ago, I hopped back to FB and suddenly was seeing ads about Smith and Wesson on my page. Same thing happened with Colt's Firearms and other products. Then, I downloaded software that blocks most of their analytics, etc.

 

[Cortex]

Even Google doesn't do this. They actually don't sell any user data; they just sell the ad space on their services.

I feel its getting to the point where tracking & profiling should be at least regulated as they are running a total free for all, & nothing anyone can do - Just because something is occurring doesn't mean it's ethical or it should continue - And there are moves in the UK to at the very least look at the issue.

 

[Bryan320]

EndangeredPootis In kaspersky security cloud it states that it does not share any personal info or sell to markets? if you have any proof of them doing it i'll be open to read the statements other than the ones they have been accused of with no real evidence to back the claims. researchers would have found out by now as they have with avast.

 

[Lenny_Fox]

I don't know what FB does with their spying but I can sure vouch for the fact they follow, or used to follow you around. I'm using blockers now. Facebook is anti gun, but curiously when I was looking at Smith and Wesson's page some time ago, I hopped back to FB and suddenly was seeing ads about Smith and Wesson on my page. Same thing happened with Colt's Firearms and other products. Then, I downloaded software that blocks most of their analytics, etc.

Website with S&W used facebook's tracking pixel to retarget you on FB. FB maybe anti-gun, but pro-ad income

 

[EndangeredPootis]

EndangeredPootis In kaspersky security cloud it states that it does not share any personal info or sell to markets? if you have any proof of them doing it i'll be open to read the statements other than the ones they have been accused of with no real evidence to back the claims. researchers would have found out by now as they have with avast.

When you install it you can accept or decline a offer for them to use your data for marketing purposes, its even in its settings.

 

[show-Zi]

It makes sense to collect data to improve software quality. I also feel that using the data collected for efficient advertising deployment is not a problem if the user agrees.
What bothered me about this case was that avast was selling the data, that is, the data was commercialized.

You were secretly photographed, and the picture was sold with a price tag in an unknown place. PepingTom needs time to regain his trust.

 

[RejZoR]

It makes sense to collect data to improve software quality. I also feel that using the data collected for efficient advertising deployment is not a problem if the user agrees.
What bothered me about this case was that avast was selling the data, that is, the data was commercialized.

You were secretly photographed, and the picture was sold with a price tag in an unknown place. PepingTom needs time to regain his trust.

Advice Request - What happened to Avast?

If they paid 50% of budget that they earn from (my selling data ) to me , there is no problem :p they say 10-100millions users, i believe they can't sell all these datas for more than 100 000$ a month... there your share ! 0.01$ :ROFLMAO:

malwaretips.com

Users did agree. Saying otherwise just shows people are disingenuous liars. And I also remember seeing this dialog myself. And never agreeing to it.

 

[Captain Awesome]

View attachment 233639

Microsoft Windows Defender is much better than avast

 

[XLR8R]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

At Avast, we take our users' privacy very seriously. We process large amounts of data -- some of which are quite sensitive -- and we make sure we not only comply with the all the laws, rules and legal regulations, but that we also act ethically and in the interest of the users.

With that, in all transparency, I'd like to bring to your attention the fact that Avast, as most other Internet companies, also makes use of (some of) the data. Namely, we supply data to Jumpshot, an analytics company that we launched some time ago. You can read more about it here: Avast Data Drives New Analytics Engine and/or check it out directly on their website www.jumpshot.com . What's important is that all the data supplied by Avast to Jumpshot is not only anonymized, but also fully aggregated, meaning that there is zero possibility to track back any of the data points to individual user level. The way it works is similar to e.g. studies done in large hospitals. While it's totally unacceptable that a hospital would pass a patient's medical record to a 3rd party, it is a common practice that hospitals do studies on anonymized, aggregated sets of patients (to produce insights such as "of 641 patients diagnosed with a type-3 glioblastoma brain tumor, 227 passed away in the first three months"). As you can imagine, the medical world is scrutinized on daily basis by various privacy regulators and in general, has a much stricter level of privacy enforcement, but yet, such studies are very common. This is what makes us comfortable with the whole concept, even though yes this is thin ice and anyone doing business in this area has to be extremely careful about not losing common sense.

Thanks
Vlk

The above person, to my knowledge, is none other than Ondrej Vlcek, the current CEO of Avast....

Link here (from 2016): Avast acquires antivirus maker AVG for $1.3BN

 

[blueblackwow65]

What happened to avast / Even the program iytself is a mem hog and resource hog with newer versions. I'll stay away from avast , WD is there when we have nothing else combined with VS is good for me.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Avast is crap, when I worked as repair guy in the past, every single computers coming to me were infected while Avast free was on them. However, those with Avira or else, were generally clean except for some browser toolbars.

I banned Avast of my systems since ages.
Just tried them occasionally on a VM to see if things get better...but no, it get worst.

And now that they are so greedy and resell your datas which is the opposite of what the idea of a security program should do.
They supposed to protect the user datas, not collect and resell them.
While we have to believe its CEO claiming he dismantled the data collecting entity... Yes sure, he also said he will never collect datas... Lol.

Avast should be labeled as PUP, It is the shame of security.
But it is free so people don't care anyway and will keep use it.

 

[XLR8R]

Avast is crap, when I worked as repair guy in the past, every single computers coming to me were infected while Avast free was on them. However, those with Avira or else, were generally clean except for some browser toolbars.

I banned Avast of my systems since ages.
Just tried them occasionally on a VM to see if things get better...but no, it get worst.

And now that they are so greedy and resell your datas which is the opposite of what the idea of a security program should do.
They supposed to protect the user datas, not collect and resell them.
While we have to believe its CEO claiming he dismantled the data collecting entity... Yes sure, he also said he will never collect datas... Lol.

Avast should be labeled as PUP, It is the shame of security.
But it is free so people don't care anyway and will keep use it.

To be honest, as an AV engine and AV product it is not bad at all, but there are too many issues with the software. Ads, even in the paid versions, for example, lots of bugs on various system configurations. I have seen computers that wouldn't start in anything but safe mode after Avast/AVG product update....I have seen BSOD and hard system hangs caused by this hardware and only a full OS reinstall fixing it.

 

[ForgottenSeer 72227]

You were secretly photographed, and the picture was sold with a price tag in an unknown place. PepingTom needs time to regain his trust.

Time it will take, a lot of time that is. The problem is that the CEO is a lot of talk right now, with little action, at least what we can see thus far anyways. He will have to show us/their users they are serious about righting their wrongs and it will take a lot of time to regain our trust.

IMHO I feel like finally Avast is finally getting what it deserves. There's no excuse for a security company to behave this way. They can support themselves without all of this stupidity simply by charging for their product and getting rid of the free version. They don't have to charges hundreds of dollars for it, just put it at a reasonable price. As long as your product is good and you can provide good customer service then you will still have plenty of users, just not as many as you have with your free version.

 

[XLR8R]

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

Marshall says that with no likely buyer for “a high growth part of the business,” with a separate management, separate board, the business was shut down, following the media storm in which he says “not necessarily all the facts were presented in the right way”.

......


Marshall confirms that data was harvested from millions of users of its core products, of which only 17 million pay for usage, but was done with their approval. “It wasn’t surreptitiously collected, it was with approval.”

“When you downloaded the software there was a screen, a box that came up and asked you and told you specifically there was an option here to allow us to use your anonymised data for marketing services for our subsidiary,” he says.

......

Avast’s business, based on the ‘fremium’ model of massive scale with a free product which the company tries to upsell and cross-sell is dependent on vast amounts of data. “The more data you have, the better your AI is,” says Marshall.

.......

In the meantime, the investigation by the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection is ongoing, something that will hang over the firm as Marshall says he has no idea how long the probe will take. It may be a time for reflection for Marshall and other members of Avast’s senior management team. “I think you always have to look at the things that you could have done differently,” hesays.

“Accountability is very important, you have to look at yourself and think about what you could have done. If somebody has been upset by this, we are apologetic,” he adds.

 

[XLR8R]

Hey, look what popped up as one of the items approved during Avast's last Annual General Meeting (May 2020):

To authorise the Company to make “political donations” and incur “political expenditure"

Avast is getting interesting nowadays.

EDIT: LINK (click to see AGM notes)