Avast hit with multimillion-euro fine for GDPR failure Punishment relates to Avast data processing before 2020 https://www.techradar.com/news/avast-hit-with-multimillion-euro-fine-for-gdpr-failure
There's more money in selling your data than the cost of the software. That is an incentive to do it and it is always possible there are other offenders as well.
That act was particularly egregious coming from an AV company trusted with the mission to secure its customer(s) devices. I've used Avast's android app subsequent to this revelation. But the 1st thing I did upon installing is to deny any and all data sharing in Settings.
Well, they were outed already in Jan 2020, according to searching the web. I just wonder how much of a profit is left over after paying that fine or whatever is accepted from them. Hope it sends a message to others out there doing the same things, and you just know there are.
Riiiight. Either they got caught or they didn't catch it themselves. Lose/lose. I could forgive some companies but not a PC security company. Combined with the subject of this discussion I can't see trusting them. The opinion of others may differ and anyone can feel free to disagree.
I think cloud scanning was invented to collect users data. There were antiviruses like Eset 5 that were very lite on resources while scanning locally even if you disabled cloud scanning. It's like Windows. Windows is free because they get your data. It's why you can activate any modern Windows with a pirated Windows 7 still. The antiviruses companies be like: oh your computer will be faster and more secure because you're offloading the scanning process. Many are still heavy on resources. Probably because the harddrive head is searching and searching for files to upload to Microsoft and you antivirus company. Main reason computers need SSD's now. HDD's were fast enough for daily tasks. And most users at home didn't need to move tons of data to need the speed of SSD. Now SSD are almost required so you can have a usable computer in 2023.
I don't think it was invented for that, but it is a bonus for them. Cloud scanning does allow them to identify new threats faster. But yes, it allows them to collect your data faster too. I agree with the SSD situation. A PC with Windows 10 or 11 isn't usable without one. I have a VM on a spinning disk and it never stops grinding away when it is running. Something is going on in the background.
That's one of the main reasons for it. But not to gather their personal data. It's so they can collect unknown files which they think are suspicious, so that the can be analysed. This allows them to detect new threats quicker, which is a good thing. It also allows for detection of threats they identify, but you don't have local signatures to identify them yet.
Well we know what they do with the data. We only notice it when news like this comes out. We're a product to them. Which is why we have many free antiviruses. Haven't you noticed that so many programs can't even be used offline anymore ? You need to add your cellphone number to log in the account of many software in many cases. Sometimes we believe things we're told by faith with the thought that no one has bad intentions. Like these antivirus companies receiving terabytes of data from customers worldwide. Do you think there's a team of people checking if every file they receive really is a virus ? That is done be behavior based protection that could be run locally and efficiently. Although it still could pester the client with false positives.
I have no idea. Even though most antiviruses have behaviour blocking, it is nowhere near as good as someone manually looking at the code. I do trust antivirus companies with my data. If I didn't, I wouldn't use an antivirus.
They just pay the fine, pennies to them. I believe the only entity that metes substantial fines is the European Union. Everyone else delivers tiny fines like this one.
The FTC has fined Avast as well: https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/22/24080135/avast-security-privacy-software-ftc-fine-data-harvesting
Also, free versions are generally monetized, and paid versions like free intrusive, which should be the case for security programs.
