![]() An excerpt from Jumpshots’s website promoting its tracking capabilities But Motherboard and PCMag found that the scrubbed browsing data being sold could still be used to identify specific individuals, thus invalidating Avast's privacy assurances. It had said it would strip out email addresses and personally identifiable information before selling the data to third parties. ![]() Prague-based Avast, founded in 1988, is one of the most popular providers of free anti-virus software, with 435 million users of its products, which include software from AVG, a security company it acquired in 2016.īut an investigation by Vice’s Motherboard and PCMag discovered that Avast was using its large installation base to collect users' browsing histories, details of online purchases and even search engine queries, and then selling this data to third parties via Avast's Jumpshot arm.Īvast had promised that any collected data would be anonymized and user privacy preserved. See Also: A Smarter Approach to Insider Threat Protection ![]() ![]() The Avast subsidiary has been funneling to marketers detailed internet browsing activity from the firm's security products and browser extensions. Avast's headquarters in Prague (Photo: Avast)įacing intense criticism, anti-virus software maker Avast on Thursday said it will shut down Jumpshot, its data collecting side business.
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