In October 2019, AdBlock Plus creator Vladimir Palant discovered vulnerabilities in Avast and AVG browser extensions. It turned out that the extensions were being followed by users. A recent high-profile case was the exposure of Avast by the journalists Vice and PCMag, who found in the company's contracts a scheme for making money on the data of their clients.
Reporters found out that Avast collected data from its customers such as Google searches, GPS coordinates, video views on YouTube and porn sites, as well as data on visits from LinkedIn. Despite the fact that the collected data did not include personal ones, such as name and e-mail, experts say that other companies with their own databases could easily figure out real people by comparing the data.
Avast's scheme was to transfer the collected data to Jumpshot, a subsidiary of Avast, which in turn sold the data to Google, Microsoft, McKinsey, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Conde Nast, The Home Depot, Pepsi, and others.
According to Avast, 450 million people use antivirus, and Jumpshot has data on 100 million people. It remains unclear exactly how much Avast earned from the data of its customers for all the time, but journalists found a contract between the firm and the marketing company Omnicom, from which it follows that the company paid Avast $ 2 million in 2019. Perhaps the revenue went to tens of millions.
As for the legality of data collection, Avast stands on the fact that it did everything according to the rules and obtained informed consent from users to use their data. Here, the journalists note that many of the users they interviewed did not know anything about any data collection for the Jumpshot company.
Ironically, a week before the investigation was released, AVG (a subsidiary of Avast) reminded users to clear their browser cache more often, otherwise they risk their data.
“Do you remember the last time you deleted your browser history? Keeping history for a long time can take up memory on your device and jeopardize your personal information."
The user Obnoxious Jerk sarcastically retorted after the release of the investigation: " Why store your history on your computer, if we store it on our servers for those who are willing to pay for it!"
Reporters found out that Avast collected data from its customers such as Google searches, GPS coordinates, video views on YouTube and porn sites, as well as data on visits from LinkedIn. Despite the fact that the collected data did not include personal ones, such as name and e-mail, experts say that other companies with their own databases could easily figure out real people by comparing the data.
Avast's scheme was to transfer the collected data to Jumpshot, a subsidiary of Avast, which in turn sold the data to Google, Microsoft, McKinsey, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Conde Nast, The Home Depot, Pepsi, and others.
According to Avast, 450 million people use antivirus, and Jumpshot has data on 100 million people. It remains unclear exactly how much Avast earned from the data of its customers for all the time, but journalists found a contract between the firm and the marketing company Omnicom, from which it follows that the company paid Avast $ 2 million in 2019. Perhaps the revenue went to tens of millions.
As for the legality of data collection, Avast stands on the fact that it did everything according to the rules and obtained informed consent from users to use their data. Here, the journalists note that many of the users they interviewed did not know anything about any data collection for the Jumpshot company.
Ironically, a week before the investigation was released, AVG (a subsidiary of Avast) reminded users to clear their browser cache more often, otherwise they risk their data.
“Do you remember the last time you deleted your browser history? Keeping history for a long time can take up memory on your device and jeopardize your personal information."
The user Obnoxious Jerk sarcastically retorted after the release of the investigation: " Why store your history on your computer, if we store it on our servers for those who are willing to pay for it!"
