FTC fines cybersecurity company Avast $16.5 million for tracking and selling user data
CNN
Cybersecurity software company Avast faces a $16.5 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission after the agency filed a complaint Wednesday accusing the company of selling consumer data to third parties.
Cybersecurity software company Avast faces a $16.5 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission after the agency filed a complaint Wednesday accusing the company of selling consumer data to third parties. The FTC says Avast, a firm that promises to protect consumer data from online tracking, has done the opposite, collecting and selling user browsing data without knowledge or consent while simultaneously misleading users. Avast’s origins date back to the late 1980s, when its founders lived and worked in Czechoslovakia when it was part of the Soviet Bloc. The company grew its antivirus software and other offerings over time, went public and merged with other companies in the cybersecurity space over time. Avast is now one of several brands owned by Gen Digital, a publicly-traded company with dual headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, and Prague in the Czech Republic. In the complaint, the agency says Avast Limited, based in the United Kingdom and through its Czech subsidiary, claimed to block tracking cookies that collect data and prevent other trackers from following online activity only to then sell that data to third-parties, engaging in the behavior since at least 2014. Furthermore, the FTC says Avast told users it would only share information in “anonymous and aggregate form,” though this was not the case.