Avast free antivirus sends browser history to marketers

When you install an antivirus program -- even a free one -- you have a reasonable assumption that it's going to help keep your data safe. But a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag has discovered that Avast's free antivirus is harvesting user data. Although this is supposedly 'de-identified' it is being sold to marketers in a way that can be linked back to an individual. The data is being sold by Avast subsidiary Jumpshot and while data is never linked to an individual's name, email or IP address, each user history is assigned to an identifier known as the… [Continue Reading]