Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/27/avast-sold-user-data-through.html
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The company name should have been a warning.
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When I saw that the Avast VPN came preinstalled on my hp laptop, I decided immediately to never use it. Wonder if they’re selling data from that, too.
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Surprise! Also, we are fully embedded in the age of “your privacy doesn’t matter, only our bottom line matters, so shut up and consume our services.”
Until the govmn’t start cracking down on this shit in a way that’s more financially painful than the equivalent of a light slap on the wrist, it’s going to get worse. If a buck can be made from we the people, they are by God going to make it.
At some point this needs to be addressed. Boing Boing (like Motherboard/Vice and many others, for sure) are harshly, defiantly critical of Facebook and surveillance capitalism at large, yet they are full of trackers (FB included) serving the exact same purpose they criticise. I understand cognitive dissonance and making ends meet are issues we all face, but the issue can’t be just nonchalantly ignored.
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But only if you ensure that the staff and any backups are on site; so it might end up being several sites. Still sound advice.
It’s always worth remembering that a VPN is just a tool for voluntarily adding a man in the middle.
Sometimes a sensible option; since it allows you to pick your man, rather than just taking whatever one happens to own the pipe between you and your destination; but the market tendency toward uncritical acceptance of deeply shady entities as ‘security’ is really depressing.
Every time someone does that, god surveils a kitten.
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Avoid Avast!
This is all especially ironic given that Avast tries to upsell its own users on anti-tracking features.
(I’m not saying this is okay-- it isn’t. But the PNG seems to sum up Avast’s attitude on the subject.)
Quick note: I’ve been using Avast for a couple of years now. It does ask you if you want to opt in to the tracking when you install it. Also, it can only track your web usage if you install their web plugins, which some browser companies (Mozilla for one) have now blocked, or if you use their “secure browser,” which I don’t. Still and all, I don’t like the look of this report, and I feel they could be doing more to be crystal clear about when/why/how they are tracking.
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