Avast is shutting down its subsidiary Jumpshot

There is bad news for all SEO folks. Avast is shutting down its subsidiary Jumpshot

If you didn’t hear about Jumpshot before – it is aggregated data provider and its’ client are such companies as Semrush, MOZ, Ahrefs and etc

Why it is happening?

Here is short timeline

27th of January, 2020

An antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is selling highly sensitive web browsing data to many of the world’s biggest companies, a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag has found.

Motherboard

Avast antivirus program installed on a person’s computer collects data, and that Jumpshot repackages it into various different products that are then sold to many of the largest companies in the world. Some past, present, and potential clients include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKinsey, Pepsi, Home Depot, Condé Nast, Intuit, and many others.

Motherboard

Avast’s software, installed on millions of computers worldwide, reportedly gathered data on people’s online activities and sent it to Jumpshot, which in turn tried to sell it to clients. Avast says that personal information — such as names, email addresses or contact details — was never shared or sold.

Avast

There’s just one problem: What should be a giant chunk of anonymized web history data can actually be picked apart and linked back to individual Avast users, according to a joint investigation by PCMag and Motherboard.

PCMag

29th of January, 2020

I – together with our board of directors – have decided to terminate the Jumpshot data collection and wind down Jumpshot’s operations, with immediate effect.

Ondrej Vlcek

Full article on Motherboard
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdkq7/avast-antivirus-sells-user-browsing-data-investigation

PCMag article
https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-cost-of-avasts-free-antivirus-companies-can-spy-on-your-clicks

Here is full message from Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek
https://blog.avast.com/a-message-from-ceo-ondrej-vlcek

And here is comment by Rand Fishkin, one of MOZ co-founders
https://sparktoro.com/blog/avasts-shutdown-of-jumpshot-will-harm-the-web-and-the-world/