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freitasm

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#265559 28-Jan-2020 10:21
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Leaked documents and investigation by PC World and Vice show that an Avast subsidiare has been selling 'Every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site'.

 

 

An antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is selling highly sensitive web browsing data to many of the world's biggest companies, a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag has found. Our report relies on leaked user data, contracts, and other company documents that show the sale of this data is both highly sensitive and is in many cases supposed to remain confidential between the company selling the data and the clients purchasing it.

 

The documents, from a subsidiary of the antivirus giant Avast called Jumpshot, shine new light on the secretive sale and supply chain of peoples' internet browsing histories. They show that the Avast antivirus program installed on a person's computer collects data, and that Jumpshot repackages it into various different products that are then sold to many of the largest companies in the world. Some past, present, and potential clients include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKinsey, Pepsi, Sephora, Home Depot, Condé Nast, Intuit, and many others. Some clients paid millions of dollars for products that include a so-called "All Clicks Feed," which can track user behavior, clicks, and movement across websites in highly precise detail.

 

Avast claims to have more than 435 million active users per month, and Jumpshot says it has data from 100 million devices. Avast collects data from users that opt-in and then provides that to Jumpshot, but multiple Avast users told Motherboard they were not aware Avast sold browsing data, raising questions about how informed that consent is.

 





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Rikkitic
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  #2407948 28-Jan-2020 10:30
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I used to use Avast, though that was years ago. Unfortunately, this kind of thing doesn't surprise me at all.

 

 





Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

 


 




networkn
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  #2407950 28-Jan-2020 10:34
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The old adage at if you aren't paying for something, then YOU are the product, once again proves to be correct. 

 

 


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  #2408042 28-Jan-2020 11:59
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Not really a surprise
Ive been saying for the past 2 years that Avast little better than the malware it protects against (my opinion)

Time & time again, it trys to trick users into paid version or unneeded upgrades with scareware tactics.
Time & time again, I see home users who where tricked into paying for the full version of this 'free' AV

 

Endless scareware popups .
Adding broswer plugins despite clicking option NOT to add them .

 

 




Rikkitic
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  #2408061 28-Jan-2020 12:23
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networkn:

 

The old adage at if you aren't paying for something, then YOU are the product, once again proves to be correct. 

 

 

 

 

Not disputing that but I have fond memories of the early days, before everyone started trying to monetise everything, and people made stuff freely available for the sheer joy of showing off what they could do and sharing it with others. There are still vestiges of that in open source and libre products like Linux, which may or may not have commercial aspects, but are not obsessively profit-driven. I am prepared to pay for something I get value from (like Geekzone), but I get irritated by all the pop-ups begging me to disable my ad blocker when I am just casually passing through a site as I follow a link. I realise the world has changed, but I do not disable my ad blocker and I'm inclined to feel that if they can't survive without ads, maybe they should reconsider their business model. Apart from anything else, ads increasingly are an infection vector for malware. And apart from that, they are annoying and I just don't want to see them. Yes, Geekzone also has ads, but it offers a paid ad-free alternative and I am happy to go with that.

 

 





Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

 


 


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