Official statement on the recent news about privacy

[VSVSVSVSVS]

Does Avast read our HTTPS communication and send it somewhere? That is very important to know!

Avast Web Shield scans HTTPS so my guess is - probably yes.

[MRVR]

As a paying customer for several Avast Products, I suppose Avast must offer compensation to any paying user who got affected by this situation.

You made a fortune on selling our data and capitalized on our trust. Now it's time to give back. Otherwise, lawyers might be involved, and you might end up facing a collective lawsuit. I'm not sure how these things work in the EU, but here in the United States, you can really get your ass kicked.

So, while it's not too late, I seriously advise anyone from Avast who is reading this forum - show this message to your manager, and ask to show it to the next manager, etc, until it gets to the very top. But in any case - you have really dropped the ball, and I'll be quite interested to see how you will try to make it up to all of us (paying customers), I'm sure that there are millions of people around the world paying for Avast products.

Good luck.

[scioppa]

Wow.  I'm thoroughly disappointed in Avast.  I don't feel the "did you read the terms of service?" argument suffices.  I bought the product to protect me.  I counted on you to protect me privacy.  You sell anti-track products (which I've purchased).  Then I find out that the guys I bought it from duped me?  This sucks.  How can we trust Avast when this happens?

[bob3160]

Hi Avast guys,

as a long-term PAYING customer and in light of the recent news of what you do with our data I'd like to ask two questions:

• Is paid version of Avast Internet Security also sharing any of user's data (anonymized or not, aggregated, whatever) with any third party (most of the news mention only Free version)?
• If so, is it possible to opt-out from any kind of such a sharing and what must you customers do to achieve that (suppose Avast IS is already installed as is the case of my PC)?

Please give simple and honest answer, no references to EULA, etc. - we all know that nobody reads them, that's why we (used to) trust some of the sw vendors. I believe that is the only way how your company can get out of this loss of trust with relatively little harm.

Thank you.

Hello,
ad 1. It depends on the settings.
ad 2. yes, see the settings (screenshot attached).

Milos

For the paid versions, the settings shown in the screenshot should be the default settings.

[Frags]

The sentence mean that we haven't applied GDPR rules only for EU citizens, but voluntarily for our all users around the world.

Except you've already been caught selling user data.

Even your new 'opt-in' pop up might not be valid under GDPR. You can't use language that nudges people toward consent. Nor is the language used transparent enough in explaining what Jumpshot does with the data given to them.

Have you deleted the browsing data you collected without consent yet?

I would advice those within the UK to make a complaint to the ICO - https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

[BenMS86]

As a paying customer for several Avast Products, I suppose Avast must offer compensation to any paying user who got affected by this situation.

You made a fortune on selling our data and capitalized on our trust. Now it's time to give back. Otherwise, lawyers might be involved, and you might end up facing a collective lawsuit. I'm not sure how these things work in the EU, but here in the United States, you can really get your ass kicked.

So, while it's not too late, I seriously advise anyone from Avast who is reading this forum - show this message to your manager, and ask to show it to the next manager, etc, until it gets to the very top. But in any case - you have really dropped the ball, and I'll be quite interested to see how you will try to make it up to all of us (paying customers), I'm sure that there are millions of people around the world paying for Avast products.

Good luck.

In the EU they can receive an penalty of up to 4% of their yearly revenue or the highest fine possible, whichever is higher, by every data protection agency possibly.

Hi Avast guys,

as a long-term PAYING customer and in light of the recent news of what you do with our data I'd like to ask two questions:

• Is paid version of Avast Internet Security also sharing any of user's data (anonymized or not, aggregated, whatever) with any third party (most of the news mention only Free version)?
• If so, is it possible to opt-out from any kind of such a sharing and what must you customers do to achieve that (suppose Avast IS is already installed as is the case of my PC)?

Please give simple and honest answer, no references to EULA, etc. - we all know that nobody reads them, that's why we (used to) trust some of the sw vendors. I believe that is the only way how your company can get out of this loss of trust with relatively little harm.

Thank you.

Hello,
ad 1. It depends on the settings.
ad 2. yes, see the settings (screenshot attached).

Milos

For the paid versions, the settings shown in the screenshot should be the default settings.

Maybe it should be according what you're told, but I'm pretty sure I toggled off the 3rd party related stuff etc far before I did so (again) yesterday. Yet yesterday all of it was on.

[bob3160]

@BenMS86
I made a statement of what I'd like to see happen. It wasn't posted for you to use in your attempt to spread
your agenda.

[Robert_M]

For the paid versions, the settings shown in the screenshot should be the default settings.

I think, this scenario will be better:
1. avast free (datashare options ON/OFF switch)
2. avast paid (datashare options removed "by design")

[Asyn]

Avast’s commitment to responsible data use
https://blog.avast.com/our-commitment-to-responsible-data-use

[XdxD]

Do the 'check boxes' in Privacy even work (I have them unchecked since the beginning), or they are just for placebo effect?

Yes, they work.

Good enough. Now, when will you delete the already collected data from everyone else and stop doing these shady stuffs? Avast's reputation is shattered right now. What are you planning to do now to fix it? Also, fix that annoying picture we have to verify in each comment.

[Asyn]

Also, fix that annoying picture we have to verify in each comment.

Captcha is only needed for your first 3 posts. (Spam protection)

[XdxD]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Asyn]

You're welcome.

[XdxD]

What do all of the Avast Überevangelists think about the issue?

[Simon234]

Do the 'check boxes' in Privacy even work (I have them unchecked since the beginning), or they are just for placebo effect?

Yes, they work.

I am sceptical of this, for example as a paying customer of premium security i have the option 'show offers for our other products' unchecked yet i still get adds for your other products.

After this and the bugs that go months or years without being fixed i'll be considering elsewhere.

For example when my vpn connects it puts a pop up with unidentified network as public and i have to set it to private EVERY DAMN DAY. I used to use avast vpn but after 2 years of support not helping i concluded that my isp throttles your dns and i left.