Think you turned off Avast's data sharing during install? Not so fast

[WLJ]

Apparently if you go into menu/settings/data sharing(labeled personal privacy in mine*) you'll find more data sharing settings are checked by default despite what you told it to do during the install.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmYw6vLeIYU

*difference in labeling could be due to differences between the US and UK version I'm not sure 

[Hawkmoon]

Sneaky.

Thanks. I just reset mine.

[WLJ]

More

Avast, an antivirus program with more than 435 million users worldwide, said it will stop collecting and selling the private web browsing histories of its users following a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag into the sale of that data. In addition, Avast said it will completely shut down Jumpshot, the subsidiary company it used to sell this data.

Our investigation found that Avast, through a subsidiary called Jumpshot, made millions of dollars following its users around the internet. Jumpshot told its clients, which include Microsoft, Google, McKinsey, Pepsi, Home Depot, Yelp, and many others that it could track “every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site.”

Multiple senators had called for action following Motherboard and PCMag's investigation. Senator Ron Wyden said "The only responsible course of action is to be fully transparent with customers going forward, and to purge data that was collected under suspect conditions in the past."

Avast Antivirus Is Shutting Down Its Data Collection Arm, Effective Immediately
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxejbb/avast-antivirus-is-shutting-down-jumpshot-data-collection-arm-effective-immediately

[Hawkmoon]

Avast is also messing up www.handgunlaw.us for me. I can get to the home page but, when I click on any state on the U.S. map to get details for that state, Avast blocks loading that page and pops up a warning that the page is infected. I've been in touch with Gary at the site and he is adamant that the site is clean, and that no other anti-virus utilities are blocking access.

It happened a few weeks ago, I submitted a report to Avast, and they unblocked the site. Over the weekend, I found Handgunlaw is blocked again. I've had to set an exception in Avast to allow me to use the site, and I've reported the false positive to Avast (again).

[WLJ]

On a side note they finally fixed rescue disk/usb after being broke for months with a program update that just came down.

[WLJ]

On a side note they finally fixed rescue disk/usb after being broke for months with a program update that just came down.

Which I just found out by testing with a USB stick is not UEFI boot compatible which means on newer systems you'll have to switch from UEFI to legacy (BIOS) booting and then back again to use. Sigh.

[WLJ]

Now Avast is Norton's problem

NortonLifeLock buys Avast for $ 8 billion
https://bbc-edition.com/money/2021/08/12/nortonlifelock-buys-avast-for-8-billion/

Norton buys Avast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TUKezLYwcg

[lee n. field]

Interesting.  I thought AVG owned them.

[Hawkmoon]

Interesting.  I thought AVG owned them.

I thought it was the other way around, that Avast owned AVG.

[WLJ]

Yep, Avast bought AVG.