United States of America: Reached settlement in FTC investigation into Avast's alleged sale of browsing data without consumer's consent

On 22 February 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ordered software provider Avast to pay USD 16.5 million and prohibited the company from selling or licensing any web browsing data for advertising purposes. The order is part of the FTC settlement agreement reached with Avast and its subsidiaries, following charges that it had sold consumers' browsing data to third parties despite promising that its products would protect consumers from online tracking. The FTC's complaint alleges that Avast unfairly collected consumers' browsing information through its browser extensions and antivirus software, stored it indefinitely, and sold it without adequate notice and without consumer consent. The FTC also accused Avast of deceiving users by claiming that the software would protect consumers' privacy by blocking third-party tracking but failed to adequately inform consumers that it would sell their detailed, re-identifiable browsing data.