by Charles Miller

"Say it ain't so, Joe." Thus read the headline above the article by Charley Owens in the sports section of the Chicago Daily News in 1920 after "Shoeless" Joe Jackson was indicted by a grand jury. The 1919 Black Sox scandal shook Major League Baseball to its core, and Joseph Jefferson Jackson who was arguably one of the greatest to ever play the game was permanently banned.

With the baseball season getting underway this month I just had to come up with a baseball analogy. The 1919 Black Sox scandal rocked the sports world when a group of players were accused of "fixing" the World Series. Allegedly they accepted bribes that were too tempting to resist, in part due to the perception that team owners were reaping huge profits while exploiting the players. Last month when I read the tech news on one of the tech-oriented websites I follow I just could not help thinking that many users of Avast Antivirus had to be thinking "Say it ain't so!"

The cybersecurity firm Avast markets a number of software products advertised as providing security and protecting privacy online. Customers who wished to avoid being spied upon pay good money to Avast to block advertisers and others from tracking their internet usage. Then last month the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Avast more than $16 million dollars for selling its users' web browsing data.

According to the FTC Avast was actually functioning as the spy. Avast allegedly used bait-and-switch tactics offering browser extensions that were advertised as blocking online tracking, but in reality harvested the users' personal information and reported it all to the company where it was then sold to the very advertisers the customers wanted to block. All this was done without the customers' knowledge or consent.

It is easy to imagine that Avast might have had the best of intentions in the beginning, but its company management probably looked at the industry giants such as Google, Facebook, etc. each raking in millions by selling user's private information. Then along comes some marketing firm offering to pay real money for all that private data Avast could access if it betrayed their client's trust. The temptation must have been too much.

From at least 2014 to 2020, Avast harvested user's personal information including shopping habits, religious beliefs, health concerns, political opinions, location data, sex life, and financial status. It then sold off these data to over 100 third parties. The FTC has banned Avast from engaging in similar practices and has ordered the company to notify all users whose data was sold. Further, the FTC banned Avast from selling any data for advertising purposes.

An Avast spokesperson released a statement saying "We are committed to our mission of protecting and empowering people's digital lives. While we disagree with the FTC's allegations and characterization of the facts, we are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to continuing to serve our millions of customers around the world."

About all we can at hope is that those millions of customers are aware of all the facts. In the case of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson the punishment was harsh, but baseball has not had another Black Sox scandal in the last hundred years. The FTC has only limited authority to shut down dishonest and disreputable companies, and their punishment meted out to Avast amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist. This leaves it up to us the consumers to stay informed and to avoid being victimized. I would like to be able to say "it ain't so" but it is.

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Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with decades of IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted at 415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

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