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Avast fined $16.5 million for ‘privacy’ software that actually sold users’ browsing data (www.theverge.com)

submitted 8 months ago by wanderingmagus@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Avast, the cybersecurity software company, is facing a $16.5 million fine after it was caught storing and selling customer information without their consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the fine on Thursday and said that it’s banning Avast from selling user data for advertising purposes.

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[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 80 points 8 months ago

If the software is free, but not open source, it's harvesting your data. How else do you think these companies stay in business?

[-] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 61 points 8 months ago

If you pay tho they're also harvesting your data. And if you don't use your service they make a ghost profile and harvest that data.

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 21 points 8 months ago

The only way to fully prevent it is to remove the profit-motive altogether.

[-] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 8 months ago

Sounds fun!

[-] GreatDong3000@lemm.ee 8 points 8 months ago

Yeah I love it when people say "if you don't pay you are the product" as if paying for youtube premium, google one, reddit premium or spotify will stop them from harvesting your data haha that's how naive we were back when we thought data was collected only for ads.

[-] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

how naive we were back when we thought data was collected only for ads.

Yeah their cozy relationship is terrifying considering Edward Snowden's revelations. It's such a simple workaround the constitutional right to privacy. Simply buy data from a willing company. And we wonder why they don't make laws against private companies' data mining... 🤔

[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 30 points 8 months ago

Free my ass! Avast charges money for that service. Hell they make you subscribe to use any service outside basic virus scan. So customers paid to have their data stolen and sold.

[-] CustodialTeapot@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago

I dislike this sentiment. Just because something is FOSS or open source, doesn't mean it's not harvesting your data or doing something nefarious.

[-] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 23 points 8 months ago

kinda wrong sentiment to get from the statement. statement is only saying if

if free and NOT open source > data harvest

it doesn't necessarily imply that

if free and open source > doesnt data harvest

at all. its just you have the ability to find out via code of they do or not. thats more or less in the boat of logical paradoxes you can make.

[-] Contend6248@feddit.de 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

A good example would be Yuzu (the Switch emulator), it was open source and collected so much telemetry that Nintendo might go after their users.

This might be fear tactic but it shows you that you aren't safe

[-] Chocrates@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I don't know about Yuzu's data collection but they were destroyed because they existed.

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

So companies like Proton and BitWarden are harvesting your data with their free tiers?

[-] russjr08@bitforged.space 6 points 8 months ago

I haven't looked into Proton, but BitWarden is open source both server side and client side.

[-] N2Narkosis@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago

Proton is open source as well. Free tiers are supplemented by subscribers. https://proton.me/support/proton-plans#proton-free

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024

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