Avast Fined Millions for Selling User Browsing Data

The U.S. FTC fined Avast and its subsidiary Jumpshot $16.5 million for deceptively collecting users’ browsing data through Avast extensions and antivirus products and selling it—often without adequate anonymization—to numerous third parties from 2014–2020; under the settlement, Avast must cease selling or licensing browsing data, delete data obtained via Jumpshot, and notify affected customers.