FTC bans antivirus giant Avast from selling its users' browsing data to advertisers

ylai@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.world – 788 points –
FTC bans antivirus giant Avast from selling its users' browsing data to advertisers | TechCrunch
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I haven’t heard anything about Avast in years, didn’t even know it still existed.

They're a giant I hear

Wait, they're not common anymore? Lol It's what I use. Any suggestions for better ones?

Microsoft defender, ublock origin and keep your computer up to date.

And practice Layer-8 security, i.e. don't be an idiot.

That's not really a choice you can make. Also idiots don't know they're idiots.

The whole don't be an idiot thing doesn't work well with most people. Most people just gøøg|€ everything and most likely don't have a clue when they're being sent to fake sites that will give them viruses. And some of them will even see macrohard defender essentially saying "Hey! You Fucked Up!" and ignore it because they surely know better than a computer.

I personally like to think that computer literacy right now is similar to back when people were just starting to push for everyone to be literate. Big difference is phones destroying that effort for computer literacy by oversimplifying everything.

I haven't run anything other than free Windows defender since it was available I believe in Windows 7. Never had a virus or anything malicious. Don't download files that you don't know the source of. Don't click on mystery links. Don't visit insecure websites. And as mentioned, keep your system up to date and you'll be fine.

Yeah people act like it’s so easy to get a virus but if you’re even remotely competent it’s pretty easy to avoid

I worked geek squad for years. The vast majority of malware was people downloading free games or free software and then not checking the custom install settings to uncheck the "install McAfee security scanner" or whatever toolbar and redirection it was at the time.

Never had a virus or anything malicious.

That you know about.

Don't assume you are fine just because your antivirus doesn't alert you about viruses.

This goes for every AV, not just Defender.

That being said, I am also just using Defender snd it has worked well.

I used to run F-Secure, and I like it, but eh Defender is good enough.

But, im running linux….Thats all i do!

I now only run Linux, but that's a change within the last 4ish months. Prior to that I was in Windows. And I work as a sysadmin and our network it all Windows on defender, granted, paid Defender and other security.

Defender + common sense usually works as long as youre not using it like a public library.