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by aba_cz 2384 days ago
Jumpshot (https://www.jumpshot.com/) is created, owned and operated by Avast (same people sitting in the same offices using same data/servers). 100% of data use for the analytics is provided by that browser plugin. Nothing is anonymized. They (Jumpshot) have unique user/hardware id, url, referrer, IP all browser information and others so they can create their reports. I'm surprised that it surprises anyone after the years of them doing that. They (Avast) are not a nice company.
2 comments
palant 2384 days ago
Yes, according to the Avast privacy policy the data is "anonymized or pseudonymized." As I already speculated in https://palant.de/2019/10/28/avast-online-security-and-avast..., they likely went for pseudonymization in this particular case - meaning that they simply left the data as it is. The unique user ID being sent there is technically a pseudonym, meaning that it isn't directly tied to your identity. That this "clickstream data" is easily deanonymized - so far there is no indication that Avast cared.
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aba_cz 2384 days ago
It's not tied to your identity, but if you go frequently to some social sites with the same user id in the url (LinkedIn and others) it's possible to match that an HW id to a real name. Also when you buy coupon or goods which are tied to you just by unique ID the data science team could see that in the clickstream and it they were evil enough they could just use that (holiday coupon for example) for themselves. Or private photos shared by unique ID in url. Basically they (employees) could see everything from navigation bar and try to find out who it belongs to.

Source: Jumpshot/Avast employees

Funny example: They (developers) could see a man from Alaska (IP based) looking for an info about yeti and then going to buy a rifle in the same session.

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palant 2384 days ago
Yes, there is research about finding out the name behind pseudonymized browsing history data - they had success rates in the area of 90%, despite having far less detailed data than what Avast is collecting.
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gaspoda 2384 days ago
Avast already sold Jumpshot.
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aba_cz 2384 days ago
No. They've sold just 35%. Still using the same offices and data as they have been for years and will for many more years.
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palant 2383 days ago
Since I'm currently looking through Avast investor reports: no, Avast didn't sell Jumpshot. In fact, Jumpshot is one of their biggest growth areas. So they closed a strategic partnership with Ascential who should help Jumpshot's business grow even further. In return, Ascential was given the right to buy 35% of Jumpshot. The remaining 65% stay with Avast and Avast is continuing to supply them with data.
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aba_cz 2383 days ago
And they are still hiring (Czech only) https://www.jobs.cz/prace/?company%5B%5D=1702000731 (data detective is quite funny) if anyone wants to look into the private data about your neighbor for example.
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lousken 2384 days ago
Not aware of that, but friends friend works in Jumpshot, they still have access to the avast data.
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