Technology
Avast won’t sell data to Jumpshot anymore
Avast will stop selling user data to its subsidiary Jumpshot, the company announced Thursday.
“As CEO of Avast, I feel personally responsible and I would like to apologize to all concerned,” Ondrej Vlcek wrote in a blog post. “Protecting people is Avast’s top priority and must be embedded in everything we do in our business and in our products. Anything to the contrary is unacceptable.”
He continues, “For these reasons, I – together with our board of directors – have decided to terminate the Jumpshot data collection and wind down Jumpshot’s operations, with immediate effect.”
The decision follows a joint investigation from PCMag and VICE’s Motherboard into the way Avast’s free anti-virus software was harvesting user data and how that supposedly anonymized data could be linked back to specific users.
The investigation pointed out how data accumulated from the “100 million devices, including PCs and phones” that utilized Avast’s product allowed clients to “view the individual clicks users are making on their browsing sessions, including the time down to the millisecond.”
That, in turn, would allow clients to combine data from Avast with other data to paint a fuller picture of a user’s digital footprint. For example, Amazon could take the data of an “anonymous” user purchasing something from its site and match it with that exact purchase from its records and identify that user.
Apologizing for the practice, Vlcek emphasized that Jumpshot was an independent entity, and that it and Avast operated within the law. He then noted that in the process of “re-evaluating every portion of our business … I came to the conclusion that the data collection business is not in line with our privacy priorities as a company in 2020 and beyond.”
He did not say, however, how long it will take for Avast to “wind down” Jumpshot.
-
Business7 days ago
Google lays off workers, Tesla cans its Supercharger team and UnitedHealthcare reveals security lapses
-
Entertainment4 days ago
iPad Pro 2024 now has OLED: 5 reasons this is a big deal
-
Business6 days ago
The Rabbit r1 shipped half-baked, but that’s kind of the point
-
Entertainment5 days ago
Why should we care what celebrities like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish say about Palestine?
-
Entertainment4 days ago
‘Stardew Valley’ has an official cookbook. Here’s how to make Seafoam Pudding.
-
Business4 days ago
Legion’s founder aims to close the gap between what employers and workers need
-
Business3 days ago
NBA champion Kyle Kuzma looks to bring his team mentality to Scrum Ventures
-
Business3 days ago
Checkfirst raises $1.5M pre-seed, applying AI to remote inspections and audits