Avast fined $16.5M for 'privacy' software that sold users' browsing data | Hacker News Reader

Avast fined $16.5M for 'privacy' software that sold users' browsing data

theverge.com

115 pointsZeidJ21 comments

In my experience, there is no such thing as “anti-virus” software. The software itself usually does much more damage to my PC than any malware ever has.

Then again, I don’t keep anything valuable on my internet connected computers - and if I’m suspicious of even a little thing I just wipe the PC and restore from image.

Haven’t run any antivirus software in over a decade and haven’t had a single problem.

There was a time and a place for antivirus (drop a train on them, Edgar!) but by the time Microsoft defender came about it was mostly over.

Now even anti malware isn’t necessary as much.

And I like the reverse philosophy behind defender. As it is "embedded" it's not supposed to say anything until it's relevant. It is really hidden.

For any other AV, they have to show frequently that they are here and help you justify your investment, so you have pop-up, reports and annoying notifications.

Yeah, until no matter how many ways you tell it, it keeps flagging legitimate security tools as malware because they sometimes get used by it, and you have to deal with getting "we have quarantined this software" popups every day or so...

Except that with Defender, the whole Windows Explorer UI hangs for several seconds when you do anything related to an unknown file while it scans it and sends the file to Microsoft (and if you turn it off, it turns itself back on in a few hours).

I turned that off with ShutUp10++ and it stays off.

I believe you can do the same thing manually with a registry or group policy edit.

Which OS do you use ?

Either

a. not Windows (which is offtopic given Avast targeted Windows with lip service for MacOS/Linux/Docker) [0]

b. or Windows (in which case they DID run antivirus via Windows Defender)

[0] https://businesshelp.avast.com/Content/Products/SysReqs/SysR...

Windows on a gaming PC, Mac for Work and Ubuntu for the daily driver. I’m going to be replacing the Windows PC with steam deck once I scrounge the cash for it.

Did you turn off Windows Defender? That's the built-in antivirus.

In my experience, there are some security products out there that protect against browser redirects and software that can do shady things to the computer even though it appears legit. I think these products are good for basic users who don't know how to protect themselves online. IMHO Defender is only good for on disk problems.

Long time ago I had to rebuild a cousins computer because it was crashing from all the malware.

After I finished cleaning it, I plugged it into the cable modem within seconds the computer was having pop-up ads, and every kind of malware you could imagine.

So rebuilt it once again, then installed antivirus from a disk before hooking it up to the internet. It was actually functional.

They should have to directly compensate the people they lied to.

Privacy violations should be expensive, so companies voluntarily dial back what they collect and retain.

The fine, or the payout, should also be equivalent to all of the money they made selling this data as well.

Double with interest, at least. Otherwise they still can use the money from selling data to make more money and still make a profit.

[dupe]

More discussion on the official FTC blog about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39470189

> In addition to a $16.5 million fine, the FTC’s proposed order prevents Avast from misrepresenting what it does with the data it collects.

Shouldn't that be the, uh, baseline for operating a business?

I interviewed there in 2013, they were most interested in my experience in some scammy mobile business. And they were actually pretty up front that most of what they do is not cracking viruses but collecting what apps people have and selling that data off

I've always been concerned about security products redirecting it users to a bundled browser.

>Avast's stupid response “While we disagree with the FTC’s allegations and characterization of the facts, we are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to continuing to serve our millions of customers around the world.”

My ass. You were deliberately deceiving your customers in believing that they were surfing the web privately then stealing data without consent. You should be shut down.

Why would they be fined? All tech businesses operate like that.

Must have forgotten to include a "also we'll sell your data" line in their EULA or ToS. Or even the standard "we'll do whatever we want with your PC" line.

Pretty odd, that kind of thing is boilerplate at this point.

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