Shutting Jumpshot was a slam-dunk decision for Avast | Business

Avast has had to work quickly to plug a hole below the waterline. Last month, the cybersecurity company got caught plundering the personal information of 100 million users and selling it to advertisers. Its frothy share price duly sank.

Superficially, the reaction looked severe, however hair-raising the revelations. Jumpshot, Avast’s data analytics wing, had been quietly sharing data on users of its anti-virus products with the likes of Google and Microsoft. It was anonymised, but included such a treasure trove of information — from browsing history to location — that it would have been easy to identify users.

For the likes of Facebook, such behaviour is part of the daily grind of snooping on users and serving up targeted adverts. So it may seem unfair