According to regulators, Avast for years collected information on customers through its antivirus software and browser extensions including data on:
religious beliefs
health concerns
political leanings
locations
financial status
Avast claimed its software would protect user privacy by blocking third-party tracking, but sold the their information without people’s consent to more than 100 third-parties through a subsidiary called Jumpshot, the FTC alleged in 2024.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/avast-antivirus-refund-ftc-what-to-know/
Damn, people actually paid for Avast?
FML i installed a lot of avast.
honest to god wonder if Norton is this bad too, I know McAfee was for sure
thanks for the heads up hopefully malware bytes is still good
This needs clarification as this is appalling. Are we talking actual data scrapping (worse) or using browser tracking (bad).
Jesus fucking Christ none of these people can be trusted not to harvest our data can they? Defender alone works perfectly fine as antivirus software now so hopefully they go under
This was known much earlier. Ages ago it was leaked Avast via an other company name earned more money from selling user data than anti-virus. Since no one needs anti-virus since Windows Defender became good enough, all anti-virus companies probably sell private user data for lack of paying customers.
Glad i dont use Avast before, even my remember is hard to say.
Thats the reason why people hate Norton, AVG, Avast or some others like Avira?
It’s crazy how many companies have been caught doing this. Avast claiming to protect privacy while secretly selling your data is a huge breach of trust. Glad to see people might finally get something back through the settlement, though. Hopefully, this serves as a wake-up call for better transparency in tech.
when you install an “anti-virus” but it turns out to be spyware
the only way to get back at them is by leaving reviews and also reporting them as spam.
How do I get in on this also what’s a good replacement to avast?
European Data Protection Supervisor [email protected]
Avast used to actually be a pretty damn good AV tool. Then they just became a piece of adware that also happened to have some okay AV functionality.
I always just pirated the pro version.
This computer guy I went to recommended it, so just went with what he said. He was a really good repairman, no agenda or anything.
I don’t know anything about computers.
If you’re not paying for a product, the product is you
This is an FTC enforcement action so the lawyers are government lawyers and don’t directly benefit from the settlement like private lawyers would.
And a few billions profit for selling that data (which no lawsuit can ever undo). In other words, just cost of doing business.
Note: Avast is now owned by the same company that owns Norton.