Leaked: Avast antivirus is selling highly sensitive web browsing data to the world's biggest companies

[RKRN3]

Avast's Shutdown of Jumpshot Will Harm the Web and the World - SparkToro

Last night, I got an email from Deren Baker, Jumpshot's CEO, informing me that the business would be winding down at the behest of their parent company,

sparktoro.com

Well, here's one defendant whose points seem to be valid to me. What are your thoughts? The defendant wants the journalists to try to do the same with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. Do have a read and enlighten me. In FB, I only have 1 photo of my profile, my e-mail ID and primary number, which are all visible only to me. I have everything paused or turned off in Google Account as well.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

The guys is right, tinfoil hats freaks don't have any clues of what they are talking about, they just see their little small universe without paying attentions to the big picture and consequences.
PCmag especially who probably sponsored this drama with some hidden agendas beside getting more traffic...
Now those "medias" go Witch-Hunting every companies who dare data mine, just to sell paper and make sensations.

Excessive data mining is indeed not good, but done with responsibility and anonymity , it doesn't hurt.
If i have a business, i like to know my customers habits/preferences to serve them better without having to ask them to fill a form...

 

[Prorootect]

Fighting for privacy is a war lost in advance.

They (Google, Avast, etc) track you to defend you against terrorists and other bad actors like bandits, villains... So tracking is good for me and for you.
Better to fight for better security than for privacy.
Fighting for privacy is a war lost in advance.
I no longer use privacy extensions like Privacy Possum, Ghostery, and my browsers are lighter.
I've already said that...

 

[Lenny_Fox]

WD scan the same files over and over in real-time, result is the latency when you open a folder full of files creating a serious impact on the system responsiveness. Caching is a mechanism that discard previously scanned files and prioritize only the new ones, result is fastest scans and better responsiveness of the system. This what WD lacks at the moment.

According to @Andy Ful explanation elsewhere in this forum this is not the case (anymore):

Windows Defender has a cache. When I understand correctly, this cache is session only, meaning it is flushed when you logoff. Windows Defender has a setting in Group Policy to scan files only when they are written (disable scan on open scan) or read (disable scan on file close scan). When either of settings is enabled, the cache survives reboot.

I have tagged Andy, so he can correct/verify the above information

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Windows Defender has a setting in Group Policy to scan files only whan they are written (disable on open scan) or read (disable on file close scan). When either of settings is enabled, the cache survives reboot.

Thanks to mention it, I probably overlooked, will implement them then.

 

[Andy Ful]

WD remembers to not scan files in the folders which were already opened in the current Windows session, so it uses a kind of "cache". But, after system restart, WD still treats folders as if they were not opened before.
WD is integrated with Windows, so it probably uses Windows cache of accessed files/folders.
It is not clear to me if this caching truly depends on WD scans.

For example, the folder scan by WD (via the right-click Explorer context menu) does not have an impact on removing the slowdown while opening this folder after the scan.

On the contrary, when you disable WD real-time protection and open the folder, there will not be a slowdown and after enabling WD real-time protection, the folder will still open without slowdown (files were not scanned at first and second folder opening).

 

[Lenny_Fox]

@Umbra, sorry forgot to mention the GPO setting, see picture

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

@Umbra, sorry forgot to mention the GPO setting, see picture
View attachment 233660

Lol as usual from MS, how to name something the most cryptic possible way...

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

@Umbra, sorry forgot to mention the GPO setting, see picture
View attachment 233660

great ! WD dosn't hang anymore when opening my folders full of files !

suck it up sweetie (if i may) ! @manchesterunited

 

[Lenny_Fox]

Why Pepsi wants my browsing data?

With Google search and analytics it is only possible to analyse the visitors you get on your website (and Google teases companies with impressions and click through rates to showwhat traffic and customers companies possibly miss to stimulate companies to spend more on advertising). With the data of Avast, it is possible to find new customer groups who share the same interest and habits, because you can analyse what they browsed and looked for before they landed on your website.

When a company has identified these interest and habits, it can improve/narrow its interest based and affiliate marketing campaigns, saving money on Google and Facebook advertisements.

Without these altenate data sources, companies have to rely on Google and facebook data more and more on the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. Normally you want to cross check the effectiveness of a supplier service with a different source than that supplier.

 

[Stopspying]

What is really odd is that the same company produces "Avast AntiTrack" and what not.
+ has Blog posts talkinga bout "Privacy". Joke!

Too bad Avast has lost its cause... It used to be a great software!

It seems that Anti-Track wasn't up to what it claimed to do, or, maybe it wasn't what it said it was all along. Keeping track of fake fake fake news gets harder all the time.

Avast's AntiTrack promised to protect your privacy. Instead, it opened you to miscreant-in-the-middle snooping

HTTPS traffic could be intercepted, manipulated, thanks to sloppy proxy

www.theregister.co.uk

 

[Burrito]

Don't expect too much, MS is a company with multiple departments ignoring what the others are doing LOL.

ForgottenSewer, yeah, that's been the rap for a while. And it may get worse. MS is moving positions to Mexico... which could negatively impact corporate integration and synchronization.

 

[BVLon]

I can’t stress enough how important it is to stay away of Avast. I’ve been suspicious about them and their practices for years. How can a company known mostly with free stuff be so successful? I have always in my practice, urged users to remove Avast and AVG, and use Windows Defender.

 

[Antus67]

What's really said when Avast first hit the web they were young and new and a decent organaization serving the public............the almighty dollar corrupted their way of life and how they deal with the public and customers.

 

[BVLon]

What's really said when Avast first hit the web they were young and new and a decent organaization serving the public............the almighty dollar corrupted their way of life and how they deal with the public and customers.

I was told that the Avast CEO has completely changed, especially after the AVG acquisition... his nose is now in the sky...

 

[Antus67]

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I hope he can breathed the high up

 

[BVLon]

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I hope he can breathed the high up

Don't know about his breath, but I'm sure his sleep was affected... he terminated jumpshot very quickly... it won't be long however before they find another dirty monetisation practice.