Ο παρατηρητής οργανισμός για την προστασία data στην Τσεχική Δημοκρατία ξεκίνησε να ερευνά την εταιρεία avast after circulation of publications which revealed that he was selling information από το ιστορικό περιήγησης των χρηστών της.
Among Avast's clients were large technology companies such as Google, the Microsoft and Home Depot, research conducted by Motherboard and PCMag revealed.
"We are currently gathering information on the entire case. There are suspicions of serious and widespread infringementof the protection of users' personal data. Following the investigation, further action will be taken and the general public will be informed,” said Ivana Janů, President of the Czech Personal Data Protection Agency.
Οι ανησυχίες για τις πρακτικές συλλογής δεδομένων της Avast εμφανίστηκαν για πρώτη φορά το 2019, όταν ανακαλύφθηκε ότι μερικές από τις επεκτάσεις για τα προγράμματα περιήγησης Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox collected information from users that the company sold to third parties.
Google and Mozilla stopped distributing the extensions, until Avast fixed them with significant changes that reduced the amount of data they collected from users' computers.
A few days ago, however, we reported that Avast continues to collect information such as Google searches, Google Maps, and YouTube, as well as clicks from adult sites.
As with the extensions, the data was anonymous, but according to Vice, many experts believe that even with anonymous data, it is possible to identify a person.