FTC Responds to Avast Selling Browsing Data – Says It Won’t “Hesitate to Take Appropriate Action as Necessary”

FTC Responds to Avast Selling Browsing Data – Says It Won’t “Hesitate to Take Appropriate Action as Necessary”

4 years ago
Anonymous $-riAjkQg_1

https://wccftech.com/ftc-on-avast-selling-browsing-data/

Yesterday, investigative reports revealed how Avast was using its free antivirus software to harvest user data and sell its users' every search, every click, and every buy on every site. The company is pulling off some regular, cookie cutter jujitsu to show the world how it was actually doing us a favor by coming up with an "ethical way" of collecting and selling browsing data.

In a blog post - which is using an image of a "happy family" with a dog and a toy [but, of course] - the company explains how its collected data helps it detect and stop billions of attacks globally. Avast emphasises that it anonymized all the personally identifiable information (PII) before selling it for millions of dollars to the likes of Google, Microsoft, Home Depot, and marketing firms.