covering the week's top textbooks like
Linux bias it turns out free security
solutions may come at the cost of all of
your browsing data avast Free Antivirus
tracker tracker tracks users online
behavior and minds the data for
companies like Microsoft Pepsi and
Google Windows users should know by now
that you're walking into a field of
landmines if you run your computer
without protection from malware so most
people use antivirus software to make
sure that they get some much-needed
privacy and security protections while
using their computers online and many to
the tune of about a half billion users
turn to free antivirus products thinking
that there's no reason to pay for
protection since there are programs
available for free however free security
Suites can sometimes hoard your browsing
data and other details and sell them to
third parties this is the case with the
popular free antivirus from Avast which
is putting the privacy of around 400
million people at risk at a time when
high profile tech executives are calling
on governments to impose more stringent
privacy rules there is nothing like
another reminder that everyone is
fighting to get a hold of your habits
preferences and pretty much any other
data that can be used by advertisers to
target you more easily according to a
joint investigation by vice and PC Mag
that involves leaked contracts and other
company company documents Avast along
with its AVG subsidiary have been
keeping track of what users did online
while using the free software they
distribute the scheme involves jumpshot
a company that provides insights into
consumers online journeys by measuring
every search click and buy across 1,600
categories from more than 150 sites
including Amazon Google Netflix and
Walmart
end quote installing avast's free
antivirus automatically adds in a
browser extension that collects
information on your internet activity
and sends it to jump shot packed and
tagged with the unique identifier a vast
data collection includes searches on
Google and Google Maps YouTube videos
LinkedIn searches and profile visits and
even what users view on adult websites
this gets sent to jump shots customers
like Google Microsoft Pepsi Sephora Home
Depot Yelp Intuit and many others Avast
says it doesn't track any sensitive
information like personal identification
phone numbers or email the company also
insists that as of july 2019 they've
begun implementing an explicit opt in
choice for all new downloads of their AV
and are now prompting existing free
users to make an opt-in or opt-out
choice a process which they claim will
be completed in February 2020 ok opt in
like you like yes yes yes yes ok I'm
installing this free antivirus yes yes
yes yes next next next next next ok you
just opted in yeah BAM we have all your
stuff and we're selling it to everyone
mm-hmm why does this come as a surprise
to people no it's not a surprise Jeff
it's just proven free is never free well
exactly I learned that as a kid nothing
comes for free if it's free there's
always something attached to it has
Facebook not talked as anything they've
taught us a lot Jeff
you know what you know what I've learned
by Facebook hmm that people just thought
you yep absolutely
yep Jeff you're still on Facebook yeah I
am still on Facebook it's a necessary
evil but ya know I I don't use Avast for
this reason any time I see a free virus
software I go antivirus antivirus yeah
like I'm
not touching it that's why I do use
subscription-based services because when
you're putting money behind it there's a
company that's gonna actually stand
behind their product as opposed to
collecting your user data yeah but
there's Kaspersky and McAfee - sure well
exactly yes but you could also get free
versions of those ok all right
but putting money on it doesn't
necessarily mean it's good but it's much
better than hey get this for free yeah
yeah because you're paying for it
somehow yeah so yeah three versions of
these products are definitely gonna have
some some caveats to them for her I'm
just wondering how long before we see
some sort of lawsuit yeah because the
interesting thing you opted in and it's
a cop-out because say Austin was until
2000 was it 19
yeah but they've retroactively Lee added
another pop okay I'm the guy that reads
the fine print before I sign up for
something yeah you're not you're not the
average user though do I know I'm not
the advertiser
I'm just the sorceress one so many
people are doing this so many people
don't really realize what's happening
yeah now you know though folks now you
know
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