Avast Hit With $16.5 Million Fine for Selling Customer Data

Avast agreed to a $16.5M FTC settlement over allegations it collected and sold users’ browsing data via Jumpshot despite promising to protect privacy, and must cease such sales, delete the data and derived products, implement a privacy program, and notify affected users. The report cites prior regulatory actions against data brokers and details how Jumpshot’s “All Clicks Feed” and contracts enabled associating browsing histories with other data sources, prompting Avast to shut Jumpshot after media investigations in 2020.