Avast, the cybersecurity software company, is facing a $16.5 million fine after it was caught storing and selling customer information without their consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the fine on Thursday and said that it’s banning Avast from selling user data for advertising purposes.
this, i prefer the service based on Free and Open Source Software,
Do we know how much money they made on it? If it was more than $16.5 then it was still a good step on their balance sheet.
This stuff needs to be fined at the full income they made from the tool plus some penalty. Corporations only care about their balance sheets.
This is a careful reminder to be VERY SCEPTICAL about not only “anti-viruses” (like bro, Windows defender is good enough), but also browsers. There is a high probability that the company is either a data broker or fintech… looking at you, Opera.
I tried Windows Defender a couple of years ago for an entire year. I thought it was dog water. The anti-ransomeware feature was the only nice thing about it. I now use BitDefender.
What are you clicking on all day?
At least once every 6 months I come across a top Google result trying to download malicious scripts. The web searches are innocent, eg. “Iso standard metric thread” or “bee keeper hive monitor”, which are both search terms in the past where a top result had malicious scripts.
Sounds like you need the noscript browser extension instead.
Sounds like a horrible internet experience. No thanks.
Nah it’s pretty good. Just a little rough at first as you whitelist the websites you go to. After that they all load quicker since you’re blocking a bunch of tracking and advertising sites.
If you use antivirus software you’re a dumbass. Just don’t download viruses?
Yes, that’s why regular people should stick to Windows defender instead of downloading and installing a third party one, because it does the job just as well.
Also, it’s Windows.
that is one of two reasons why I stopped using their software.
Too many scare-ware screens and too much bloatware that you have to be mindful about not installing.
This is fucking garbage.
When a company gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar, it’s not a punishment to put one of the cookies back.
Fines should be ten TIMES what the company made from their misbehaviour, not ten percent.
Ah, the snake oil turned out to be poisonous.
$16.5 million is not even a slap on the wrist
A great business model actually
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Avast, the cybersecurity software company, is facing a $16.5 million fine after it was caught storing and selling customer information without their consent.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the fine on Thursday and said that it’s banning Avast from selling user data for advertising purposes.
From at least 2014 to 2020, Avast harvested user web browsing information through its antivirus software and browser extension, according to the FTC’s complaint.
“We are committed to our mission of protecting and empowering people’s digital lives,” Avast spokesperson Jess Monney said in a statement to The Verge.
“While we disagree with the FTC’s allegations and characterization of the facts, we are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to continuing to serve our millions of customers around the world.”
In January, the FTC reached a settlement with Outlogic (formerly X-Mode Social) that prevents the data broker from selling information that can be used to track users’ locations.
The original article contains 398 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
“While we disagree with the FTC’s allegations and characterization of the facts, we are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to continuing to serve our millions of customers around the world.”…translation, we regret being caught but look forward to the opportunity of exploring alternate ways to exploiting consumers for profit.
Good bot.
I wonder what other uses there are to sell data that is not for advertising? My second thought goes to what is in place to stop a middleman from saying that they would not sell information for advertising purposes, but selling the data for “quality control of data acquisition” purposes. If you are getting a service for free, you are the product.
Political campaigns? A political candidate may want to know his opponent’s supporters and may think he can do a more targeted wooing. 1 may say it’s advertising too.
Also, he can send bots to the political discussions that folks participate in. The bots can start nasty political arguments.
A greedy religious figure may want to encourage more to join his religion. More members, more cash.
Cybersec company ❌
Advertisement/Data mining ✔️
If the software is free, but not open source, it’s harvesting your data. How else do you think these companies stay in business?
I dislike this sentiment. Just because something is FOSS or open source, doesn’t mean it’s not harvesting your data or doing something nefarious.
kinda wrong sentiment to get from the statement. statement is only saying if
if free and NOT open source > data harvest
it doesn’t necessarily imply that
if free and open source > doesnt data harvest
at all. its just you have the ability to find out via code of they do or not. thats more or less in the boat of logical paradoxes you can make.
A good example would be Yuzu (the Switch emulator), it was open source and collected so much telemetry that Nintendo might go after their users.
This might be fear tactic but it shows you that you aren’t safe
I don’t know about Yuzu’s data collection but they were destroyed because they existed.
If you pay tho they’re also harvesting your data. And if you don’t use your service they make a ghost profile and harvest that data.
The only way to fully prevent it is to remove the profit-motive altogether.
Sounds fun!
Yeah I love it when people say “if you don’t pay you are the product” as if paying for youtube premium, google one, reddit premium or spotify will stop them from harvesting your data haha that’s how naive we were back when we thought data was collected only for ads.
how naive we were back when we thought data was collected only for ads.
Yeah their cozy relationship is terrifying considering Edward Snowden’s revelations. It’s such a simple workaround the constitutional right to privacy. Simply buy data from a willing company. And we wonder why they don’t make laws against private companies’ data mining… 🤔
Free my ass! Avast charges money for that service. Hell they make you subscribe to use any service outside basic virus scan. So customers paid to have their data stolen and sold.
So companies like Proton and BitWarden are harvesting your data with their free tiers?
I haven’t looked into Proton, but BitWarden is open source both server side and client side.
Proton is open source as well. Free tiers are supplemented by subscribers. https://proton.me/support/proton-plans#proton-free
Can’t believe a company with a notorious history of spying on users is at it again for the 234th time!
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They should be put out of business and those responsible jailed
Five years ago, I posted on Reddit about how Avast had installed a browser without my consent and set it as default while I was out of town and away from my computer. That post has had comments added to it several times a year ever since, meaning that they’re still trying that nonsense. They stole my data without my consent by importing all of my browser data, and now it’s come out that they blatantly sold it without my consent as well.
I said it then, and I say it now: If you install something without my knowledge or consent, you’re a virus, plain and simple.
