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Avast Announces Termination of Data Collection Subsidiary

Adam Levin

Avast will phase out Jumpshot, a subsidiary that sells user browsing data gleaned from its antivirus and security products. . “I Avast’s sudden about-face regarding the sale of user data came just days after a joint exposé published by Motherboard and PCMag that revealed the depth and scope of its user data tracking.

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Avast Subsidiary Sells User Browsing History

Adam Levin

Avast’s “free” or “freemium” antivirus software has over 435 million active users, with 100 million devices feeding data into Jumpshot, including, Google searches, LinkedIn activity, Youtube activity, and activity on pornographic websites. Critics of the company’s data collection policies responded to this statement with skepticism.

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Apple Fined $8.0M in France for Data Collecting Issues

Heimadal Security

Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), the French data protection authority, fined Apple €8,000,000 ($8.5M) for collecting user data without the user’s consent. The data was used to better target advertising in the App Store. The post Apple Fined $8.0M

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Dan Solove on Privacy Regulation

Schneier on Security

Law professor Dan Solove has a new article on privacy regulation. In his email to me, he writes: “I’ve been pondering privacy consent for more than a decade, and I think I finally made a breakthrough with this article.” ” His mini-abstract: In this Article I argue that most of the time, privacy consent is fictitious.

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Websites Use Session-Replay Scripts to Eavesdrop on Every Keystroke and Mouse Movement

Schneier on Security

The stated purpose of this data collection includes gathering insights into how users interact with websites and discovering broken or confusing pages. News article. In fact, some companies allow publishers to explicitly link recordings to a user's real identity.

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Privacy and Security of Data at Universities

Schneier on Security

The boundaries between research and grey data are blurring, making it more difficult to assess the risks and responsibilities associated with any data collection. Many sets of data, both research and grey, fall outside privacy regulations such as HIPAA, FERPA, and PII.

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Insurance and Ransomware

Schneier on Security

News article. As such, it should be one of many tools that governments and businesses can draw on to manage cyber risk more effectively. Basically, the insurance industry incents companies to do the cheapest mitigation possible. Often, that’s paying the ransom.

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