Earlier this week, following reports detailing how free antivirus maker avast and its subsidiary AVG were sharing user browsing data with third parties through another subsidiary, Jumpshot, avast announced that it was discontinuing the practice.

"avast's core mission is to keep people around the world safe and secure, and we understand that the recent news about Jumpshot has hurt many of your feelings and rightfully raised many questions.

"For these reasons, I have decided with the Board of Directors to terminate Jumpshot's data collection and suspend Jumpshot's operations immediately.

Perhaps predictably, Vlcek said he had been thinking about closing Jumpshot all along, and seemed to blame a bit his predecessor, the CEO who started this program. (Vlcek did not mention the nearly 30% drop in Avast's stock price since Monday.)

"When I took over as CEO of avast seven months ago, I spent a lot of time reevaluating every part of the business. During this process, I came to the conclusion that our data collection business was not in line with our privacy priorities as a company beyond 2020."

Despite what the Vice and PC Mag reports implied, avast's user data collection was no great secret.

Upon installation of avast Free Antivirus or AVG AntiVirus Free, all users were sent a notice about this practice, along with instructions on how to opt-out. Users were also incessantly urged to upgrade to the brand's paid software option that attempts to collect browsing history, along with similar notices.

Similarly, Avast and AVG's free browser extensions promised to screen your web traffic for dubious URLs, but also transparently changed your search engine settings. Disreputable? Certainly, but not deceptive.

But the outrage following the report's release gave avasto no choice, especially after U.S. Senator Mark Warner (R-Va.) said that "no consumer can realistically conceive of the possibility that antivirus software is selling browsing data." had no choice.

You are right to wonder why software installed to protect you online could compromise your privacy. But if the Congressman or his staff had tried installing Avast themselves, they would have found that the software told them exactly what it was doing. But such boring facts do not make for good sound bites.

Now everyone has gained. However, the "hundreds of loyal Jumpshot employees" to whom Vlcek referred in his note will probably lose their jobs.

Despite the uproar, we will continue to recommend Avast Free Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free as options worth considering, if not the absolute best free antivirus software.