Avast shuts down marketing analytics subsidiary Jumpshot amid controversy over selling user data
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/30/avast-shuts-down-marketing-analytics-subsidiary-jumpshot-amid-controversy-over-selling-user-data/
Avast has made a huge business out of selling antivirus protection for computers and mobile devices, but more recently it was revealed that the Czech-based cybersecurity specialist was also cultivating another, more controversial, revenue stream: harvesting and selling on user data, some of which it amassed by way of those security tools.
But as of today, the latter of those businesses is no longer. Avast announced that it would be winding down Jumpshot, its $180 million marketing technology subsidiary that had been in the business of collecting data from across the web, including within walled gardens, analysing it, and then — unknown to users — selling it on to third-party customers that included tech giants like Microsoft and Google and big brands like Pepsi and Home Depot.