Leaked Documents Expose the Secretive Market for Your Web Browsing Data: An Avast antivirus subsidiary sells 'Every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site.'
In 2005 Avast suffered a blow to its ten year public glory when, after months of press and court-monitored privacy law, it sold its money making anti-virus business in conjunction with German based MioDefense (backwards compatibility) to Medar Technologies. The software offered by Avast saw over 1.5 billion page views in 2005 and nearly 10 percent of computer users have come to rely on its anti-virus and antispyware products.
Combined with MioDefense's wisdom it was in 2006 that MioDefense settled all pending legal challenges and paid Avast out of their own pocket to settle the dispute of data sharing. The terms of the deal are: 1) The two companies must hold a "black box" fee lock-up agreement to protect data sharing rights, so if MioDefense disposes of the original user data, its focus will still be on protection of all users' web browsers. (Not a TSB licence, of course.) 2) An advisory board will be appointed to supervise the sharing and regulation of the information.
Avast refused to release the information, but Avast Global Communications did admit on their web site that, "their membership was recommended and recommended by a separate board." (The advisory board is only one of the actions held by the company outside the agreement in "a statement of no further interests or future interests." Even if "vouching for the credibility of the advisory board makes no sense - what's next, advice from the Council of Innovators on Judicial Matters?)
The offer: if the legal tussle is resolved by the dates expiring in 2008, and if you "accept this settlement or consider alternative information settlement arrangements, the parties will extend the time in which they may otherwise exchange documents and documents. For those parties, they should try to work cooperatively with each other to reach a resolution by the date on which, taking into account the best available option and taking into account the parties' lawful rights and interests as well as each other's legal rights and interests, all future securities shall be issued in the amount of the settlement agreement."
At the time of the announcement MioDefense shares closed on November 4, 2006 at $25.95 per share, having risen 7 percent or $1.01 between the announcement to its share close on November 4, 2006 and the close of trade on November 4, 2006. They ended on June 12, 2007 at $33.10 per share, having risen 3 percent or $1.07 between the announcement to its share close on June 12, 2007 and the close of trade on June 12, 2007.
Riot (summer 2007)
After an intensive but pointless legal battle between the two companies, the final settlement was signed on April 24, 2007 by the directors of Medar. In a lengthy statement (sent to an Israeli mobile phone operator) the new owners expressed their "wide admiration" for "the recognized internationally recognized and respected reputations" of Avast and MioDefense and said "mioDefense's family of dedicated employees [had] served shareholders with a supervisory duty until the success of the merger was finally achieved."
MioDefense was founded in 1998 and its flagship software to date is Demonist and Cuts Code Suite of products, at an annual run rate of over 3 billion in revenues, and is one of the market leaders in their space. Demonist, which was released in 2004, is also the "matrix" that allows Windows consumers to conduct web-enabled searches. Cuts Code Suite offers a complete suite of anti-virus and antispyware products and vFly, which has been released earlier this year as a free application, allows any computer, running Windows XP or later, to be configured to run vFly, a "universal" anti-virus and anti-spyware program, so your computer can run anti-virus, antispyware and other anti-virus or antispyware products. (We recommend you check out their details of the product - www.uheline.net/info/)
What you get for your money is:
Avast application
MioDefense security/antispyware suite
Dimension Gamma anti-spyware applicationIn 2005 Avast suffered a blow to its ten year public glory when, after months of press and court-monitored privacy law, it sold its money making anti-virus business in conjunction with German based MioDefense (backwards compatibility) to Medar Technologies. The software offered by Avast saw over 1.5 billion page views in 2005 and nearly 10 percent of computer users have come to rely on its anti-virus and antispyware products.
Combined with MioDefense's wisdom it was in 2006 that MioDefense settled all pending legal challenges and paid Avast out of their own pocket to settle the dispute of data sharing. The terms of the deal are: 1) The two companies must hold a "black box" fee lock-up agreement to protect data sharing rights, so if MioDefense disposes of the original user data, its focus will still be on protection of all users' web browsers. (Not a TSB licence, of course.) 2) An advisory board will be appointed to supervise the sharing and regulation of the information.
Avast refused to release the information, but Avast Global Communications did admit on their web site that, "their membership was recommended and recommended by a separate board." (The advisory board is only one of the actions held by the company outside the agreement in "a statement of no further interests or future interests." Even if "vouching for the credibility of the advisory board makes no sense - what's next, advice from the Council of Innovators on Judicial Matters?)
The offer: if the legal tussle is resolved by the dates expiring in 2008, and if you "accept this settlement or consider alternative information settlement arrangements, the parties will extend the time in which they may otherwise exchange documents and documents. For those parties, they should try to work cooperatively with each other to reach a resolution by the date on which, taking into account the best available option and taking into account the parties' lawful rights and interests as well as each other's legal rights and interests, all future securities shall be issued in the amount of the settlement agreement."
At the time of the announcement MioDefense shares closed on November 4, 2006 at $25.95 per share, having risen 7 percent or $1.01 between the announcement to its share close on November 4, 2006 and the close of trade on November 4, 2006. They ended on June 12, 2007 at $33.10 per share, having risen 3 percent or $1.07 between the announcement to its share close on June 12, 2007 and the close of trade on June 12, 2007.
Riot (summer 2007)
After an intensive but pointless legal battle between the two companies, the final settlement was signed on April 24, 2007 by the directors of Medar. In a lengthy statement (sent to an Israeli mobile phone operator) the new owners expressed their "wide admiration" for "the recognized internationally recognized and respected reputations" of Avast and MioDefense and said "mioDefense's family of dedicated employees [had] served shareholders with a supervisory duty until the success of the merger was finally achieved."
MioDefense was founded in 1998 and its flagship software to date is Demonist and Cuts Code Suite of products, at an annual run rate of over 3 billion in revenues, and is one of the market leaders in their space. Demonist, which was released in 2004, is also the "matrix" that allows Windows consumers to conduct web-enabled searches. Cuts Code Suite offers a complete suite of anti-virus and antispyware products and vFly, which has been released earlier this year as a free application, allows any computer, running Windows XP or later, to be configured to run vFly, a "universal" anti-virus and anti-spyware program, so your computer can run anti-virus, antispyware and other anti-virus or antispyware products. (We recommend you check out their details of the product - www.uheline.net/info/)
What you get for your money is:
Avast application
MioDefense security/antispyware suite
Dimension Gamma anti-spyware application
