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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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[-] 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.

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024

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