Avast anti-virus sells 435m customer data, including porn search history
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>You DO have antivirus, right anon? Common sense [current year] just isn’t enough.
Leaked documents, data, contracts show how hugely popular antivirus Avast now harvests internet browsing data and sells it for millions of dollars. Clients included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft. Documents show a product called “All Clicks Feed”
>As we’ve learned time and time again, “free” things on the internet are almost never truly free. If you’re not paying with money, you’re probably paying with your data. That’s the case with the free antivirus products from Avast, which harvest browsing history for sale to major corporations. Despite claims that its data is fully anonymized, an investigation by our sister site PCMag and Motherboard shows how easy it is to unmask individual users.
>Avast, which offers antivirus products under its own brand as well as AVG, has traditionally gotten high marks for its malware blocking prowess. When setting up the company’s free AV suite, users are asked to opt into data collection. Many do so after being assured all the data is anonymized and aggregated to protect their identities. However, Avast is collecting much more granular data than anyone expected, and that puts your privacy at risk.
>Avast markets user data through its Jumpshot subsidiary, which has relationships with firms like Google, Pepsi, Microsoft, and Home Depot. PCMag and Motherboard managed to gain access to internal documents and a sample of data from Jumpshot, and they found Avast is tracking user clicks down to the second.
>That doesn’t tell you anything about the person behind the clicks — unless you’re Amazon. With access to Amazon data, you could simply look for users who executed the same click or series of clicks, and now you have a name associated with the device ID. Suddenly, Avast’s data contains a full record of that user’s internet usage. Other companies can do the same by matching anonymized clicks in Avast data with their own records.
>Avast recently removed the user tracking features from its Chrome extensions, but the standalone desktop programs continue to collect every click. For this reason, PCMag no longer recommends Avast Antivirus.
Additional sources:
https://www.cnet.com/news/antivirus-firm-avast-is-reportedly-selling-users-web-browsing-data/
https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/27/avast-jumpshot-selling-user-data/
https://archive.fo/o2fJL (VICE, archived cuz they’re cancer) -
it’s written in the TOS, how can people be surprised with this?
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Why is this kind of data worth anything?
Looks like mobile users data, still should be worth nothing.Most users shouldn’t care if it not personalized
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>Looks like mobile users data, still should be worth nothing.
Just because you lack the knowledge to use it doesn’t mean it won’t make millions for those who have the knowledge.
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>install plugin which decrypt network traffic and sends it to somewehere
stupidity has no limits -
if anyone has any data on a bunch of people, they are selling it
it’s over -
What is a good alternative and what does g do for security?
Paid and free-
don’t download and run garbage off of dodgy websites. don’t open file attachments sent via e-mail from strangers,keep browser & os up to date..etc.etc.. common sense stuff that costs $0.
Also F-Secure Safe along with browser extensions for Firefox such as uBlock origin and Disconnect.
I also use Never remember history setting on it to nuke whatever cookies there might be every time I close the browser, but that’s more for the increased productivity for there being an extra step to log in to whatever social media or site I might use.
Using “free” virus protection sounds really risky considering the root access these applications have on whatever system they’re installed on. I personally trust F-Secure due to it being Finnish and they’ve actively fought for privacy during the past few years. Mikko Hyppönen has a lot of great talks about privacy and malware on the web.
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I do not open random binaries. People who say they use linux so they do not need antivirus usually do. Using linux doesn’t make you invincible. It doesn’t matter at all which OS you use from AV perspective if you open random binaries.
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you hardly can do any harm to the system without root privileges and unlike on windows we don’t just have a popup saying that you need admin rights that everyone just ignores and clicks yes, it asks you for the root password. That alone makes some people think twice before continuing. Second, what kind of viruses are you talking about ? I’m sure you can download some epic troll script that will delete some files or whatever, but the more (if not the only) available viruses for windows that spy on you or run some Bitcoin miner will not work on linux, nobody makes them
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Some of us have families and as we all know kids and women are retarded.
What are some wholesome security solutions that don’t rely on “common sense”
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You can’t protect retards from themselves. They’ll figure out some way to gently caress shit up, even if you come up with some “fool proof” solution and tell them to upload even remotely sketchy programs to virustotal before running. Just put MSE (because it’s free and they’re already using MS spyware anyway) on their shit and get ready for them to call you to fix their gently caressups later. If you really insist on having some software running in the background, get malwarebytes.
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Use something like VirtualBox, make an image of VM with fresh install of windows. Then clone that VM image into a new VM and have them use that, tell them to save any documents to a cloud drive like dropbox. Every week you delete that VM and clone a new one from that image. So basically you wipe their shit each week. If they have to keep installing certain software they need after each wipe (like Word or something), add that software yourself to that fresh install image, so they don;’t have to do that after each wipe.
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My options to opt out where never on and I have never used their extensions but I have used the AV for a decade or more. Cucked again.
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Their privacy policy makes it quite obvious that they spy on you but retards still continue to use it
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so which anti-virus can you use in 2020?
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ublock origin and not running unknown apps or links, I have only simplewall + UAC on password
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Gentoo
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You can get infected just as easily (if not easier) on linux than on windows. There’s a reason software like ClamAV exists. Enjoy your custom compiled kernel until someone sends you a nice binary with trojan and you open it like a moron.
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>Avast
lol why do people keep using that crappy anti-virus software-
It’s better than AVG, supports Windows XP, and is free.
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Whilst I don’t know the intent of the poster you replied to, he is factually correct, and I’ll still be using avast on windows systems. Everyone sells data, and there are currently no better alternatives.
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Windows defender
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Because they think they are smarter than other people who don’t use antivirus whatsoever.
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>It’s better than AVG
Who do you think owns AVG?
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What will Pepsi and Home Depot use my porn history for? It’s not like google ads or television or radio can use my fetish interests without getting censored all to hell.
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It was in the gently caressing EULA. In a free antivirus. Of course you entitled cucks.
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Glad I switched from Avast to Avira back in 2012.
Also:
All of the stories keep talking about people who opt in getting reamed. I mean I get it if someone doesn’t read the fine print and ignorantly agrees to having their porn library sold to Home Depot. But what about those who opt out? I’m more worried about if this is similar to a Windows 10 situation where selecting to “opt out” is just a placebo. -
Looks like the chads that don’t use any antivirus win yet again.
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Serious question:
What are the alternatives if you don’t trust Avast anymore? Kapersky? Bitdefender?-
Kaspersky calls home to the Kremlin
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/is-kaspersky-safe,news-25983.html-
I still trust Russians more than the globohomo.
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Same but it’s still not a great alternative
Just use ClamAV for Winblows if you have to
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So in short the vatniks know my porn searches, what now?
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I only view porn on Google Chrome signed into my Google account.
>using an antivirus -
Is anyone actually surprised?
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gently caress Avast. The worst antivirus company out there.
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AV companies spy on users, what else is new?
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Holy shit just use windows defender, ublock origin with malware/malvertising lists(using a pi-hole is optional, but recommend) and occasionally do a scan with malwarebytes and you wont ever get a virus.
Using these resource hogging anti-virus suites only serves to slow down your computer.
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>Windows 10 doesnt spy on you
Literally are you six-
I didn’t say it doesn’t spy on you, all i’m saying is that’s the only AV you need if you’re on windows.
Of course, if you actually cared about being spied upon. You wouldn’t be using wangblows at all.
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Doesn’t this violate the GDPR in YUROPOOR? Just complain to EU and see them gently caress up this garbage company
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>Google was the good guys all along
>Home Depot is plotting to monopolize the internet, tech, medicine, eventually government.
We were too late bros.-
says the zombie that got brainwashed by google. like you would get the truth from a platform that is literally owned and controlled by google.
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How do we warn normalfags about """free software and services""" without looking like a paranoid schizophrenic?
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This is partly thanks to them installing a modified chromium that just has a modified https everywhere and modified ublock origin preinstalled.
And every company WILL sell your data. They have given up on every last ethical practice since they figured out all they have to do is donate to Dems and put up rainbow flags every year for globohomo.
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YES, this is PROPRIETARY software, YES, it runs on ring 0 ehehehehe, BUT YOU CAN TRUST US.
We only want the BEST for a go-I mean GUY like you, yes, mhmm yes, heuehuehuehe.
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>y-you can still opt out! We swear! DON’T LEAVE!
So is this an actual opt out or a Windows 10 "opt out lol-not-really"
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>free AV makes money selling user data
What! No way!-
Pretty sure the free one was constantly upselling you for a paid version. But whatever.
I used Avast years ago, I guess all the corporations know I like cougars now.
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>Microsoft is already spying there users through there OS.
>Microsoft got to buy those private stuffs from another company which software runs already on Microsoft’s OS.Wut ?
Is Microsoft really that stupid or is there some big communication’s problem between there offices ???-
Avast is even more invasive than Windows 10 in many areas
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Hey gently caresstards,
Avast Anti virus downloaded itself after
not even checking it probably downloading other software,
Bitdefender requires email login (so they know you anyway)
besides all this these citizen’s privacy (no-)rights respecting
companies know your IP even when using VPN since it takes time
to load, & not one can say they are guaranteed private.
Internet can be easily accessible for many, but really
for alot of the sheeple commentary & other more broader nonsense it carries & disseminates it just sucks.
You Welcome
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