avast has been in turmoil for a few days, after the publication of a survey which proves that the famous antivirus company collected and sold browsing data from its users. This collection is perfectly legal and respectful of the European GDPR and its Californian equivalent, the company defended itself, but the fact remains that the users concerned were most often unaware of its existence.
Faced with controversy, Avast finally steps back by announcing the closure of Jumpshot, its subsidiary which was responsible for the resale of personal data. The shutdown was not immediate, since the company signed several contracts which oblige it to continue its operations for some time. It is not known how much it will take, but Avast will eventually close the business altogether and stop selling personal data.
Will it be enough to restore user confidence? Not sure, especially since the press release is not very clear on the data collection part. Avast will stop selling the information, but not collect it, although all users will have to a priori explicitly validate data sharing. This is in particular what the company told us after the publication of our article on the subject, recalling that this collection of information has always been optional:
Users have always had the option to refuse to share data with Jumpshot. In July 2019, we had already started to set up an explicit choice of acceptance or refusal for all new downloads of our software, and we now invite our current free users to make a choice of acceptance or refusal, a process to be completed in February 2020.
Only users who did not pay for their version of Avast were affected by this commercial use of their data. The company says nothing will change for them now, but a way will have to be found to finance the development of this free product.
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