Avast, the cybersecurity software company, is facing a $16.5 million fine after it was caught storing and selling customer information without their consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the fine on Thursday and said that it’s banning Avast from selling user data for advertising purposes.
I’m all for crapping on large publicly traded companies but lumping Google in with companies that sell your data isn’t honest. Google does not and never has sold user data. They sure as hell use your data for their own ad network but they do not sell that data wholesale. Meta and other data brokers sell your data and this Avast company sells your data through a product they claimed stopped tracking. I’m not pro-Google but to compare their business model (which is very transparent about how it handles your data and how it’s never sold) to Avast’s business model (which is to completely lie to the end user while literally selling everything that user does) is not an honest comparison.