Month: March 2023

Unlawfully processing customer data lands Avast with huge fine, several years after it closed down the accountable subsidiary.

Cybersecurity and antivirus company Avast has been hit with a €13.7 million ($14.9 million) fine for processing customers’ data illegally as per GDPR requirements.

Spanish not-for-profit NGO Facua, which focuses on consumer rights matters, made Spain’s Agency for Data Protection aware that Avast had collected and sold private browsing data, including identifying data, without knowledge or authorization.

Facua credits PCMag and Motherboard for first bringing the matter to public attention, which saw Avast wrongly handling personal data under its subsidiary, Jumpshot.

Avast GDPR fine

Data packaged by Jumpshot from companies like Google, Microsoft, Yelp, Home Depot, Sephora, Loreal, and more, was sold on the pretense that it could “provide companies with a more complete view of the entire online user journey” (via Facua).

The NGO highlights some of the data that was collected by Avast, including Google Maps location searches and GPS coordinates, videos viewed on YouTube, profiles on LinkedIn, and even more broadly, Google web searches.

Having transferred the case to the Czech Republic, the Czech Administration has ruled that Avast has committed a number of violations against the GDPR relating to processing personal data, “failing to sufficiently inform the data subjects (users of the Avast antivirus program and its browser extension) at the time the data was obtained from them, about the purposes of the treatment for which they were intended and on the legal basis of the treatment in question.”

A Gen spokesperson told TechRadar Pro on behalf of Avast:

“Avast closed down Jumpshot in January 2020, and with this terminated the processing of customer data by Jumpshot, as stated in the blogpost. The Czech DPA investigation relates to the historic processing of personal data before January 2020. The Czech DPA started its investigations in February 2020, and till today, the proceedings are still ongoing, a final decision has not been issued yet. Therefore, we cannot provide any comments.  

Since January 2020, Avast reaffirmed its commitment to taking all necessary steps to keep its users’ data safe and private. Avast swiftly closing down Jumpshot demonstrates how seriously it has taken this situation. Avast has continued to take proactive measures to ensure that its privacy practices are a top priority and maintains active participation in global privacy-first organizations and initiatives, including partnering with industry-leading privacy advisors such as TrustArc through which Avast earned the TRUSTe privacy certification, and working closely with OneTrust and the Future of Privacy Forum.”

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Netflix’s The Night Agent has two big rivals to fight off if it’s to be crowned best spy thriller series of the year.

It’s a good time to be a fan of the spy genre. Superhero, sci-fi, and high fantasy shows have dominated the television scene for a while now. And, even though some espionage-based TV series have made their way onto our screens during that time, fans of the genre have been feasting off morsels rather than full-blown meals.

The arrival of three potentially big spy shows in the first half of 2023, though, is set to change that. Netflix, Prime Video, and HBO Max have come out swinging – or, in the latter pair’s case, will eventually come out swinging – in the battle to secure the ‘best spy show’ of 2023. Fans of spycraft and thriller TV shows, then, will have plenty to enjoy, and debate about which series is best, over the next couple of months.

So, what are these so-called top-tier shows that spy fans will want to, well, keep an eye on?

First up is The Night Agent. Unless you’ve been locked in a dark room for the past week, you’ll know that The Night Agent has become Netflix’s new TV show darling. The Shawn Ryan-developed espionage series accrued an impressive 168.7 millions hours viewed in its first week post-release – viewing figures that make it the second most-watched Netflix show of 2023 so far. Given its unexpected success, Netflix has unsurprisingly renewed The Night Agent for a second season.

Launching to little fanfare, The Night Agent is everything you’d want in a spy series. It’s well acted, comes equipped with a tension-filled plot with multiple twists and turns, and has just enough action to break up the potential monotony of watching characters stand around discussing what to do next. With few other excellent spy-based shows available on Netflix – Treason and The Recruit also landed in recent months, but struggled to appeal to the streamer’s fanbase – The Night Agent plugged a huge gap in Netflix’s back catalog to stunning effect. Expect it to join our best Netflix shows guide in the interim.

The Night Agent is the spy show on everyone’s lips right now. However, two big-budget series, which are set to launch within days of each other in late April and early May, will look to usurp it in the fight to be crowned ‘best espionage TV series’ of 2023.

Amazon Studios’ Citadel will be the first to challenge The Night Agent when it’s released on April 28. Produced by Marvel alumni in The Russo Brothers, created by Hunters showrunner David Weil, and starring Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden and The Matrix Resurrections‘ Priyanka Chopra-Jonas, Citadel is positioning itself as James Bond-styled TV series that’ll look to corner the spy genre market on the small screen.

There’s good reason to believe it will, too. As the above trailer shows, it looks as action-packed, stylish, narratively thrilling, and even slightly witty. Amazon has clearly thrown plenty of cash at Citadel with the aim of turning it into another expensive franchise show. 

Like The Rings of Power, Amazon will hope Citadel commands viewers’ attentions. If nothing else, at least we’ll get to see Madden go full James Bond in Citadel – something fans of the Scottish actor have wanted to witness for a while. Expect it to be part of our best Prime Video shows article very soon.

It won’t be long until Citadel is given a run for its money, however. White House Plumbers, a prestige politically charged spy-drama, debuts on HBO Max just three days later on May 1. And, while it might not have the immediate appeal of Citadel or The Night Agent, it could become the surprise contender for ‘best spy show’ by the year’s end.

There are plenty of reasons why it might achieve that aim, too. For starters, it’s been created by Alex Gregory and Peter Hyuck, the writers behind some of the best episodes of Frasier, Veep, and King of the Hill. David Mandel (The Simpsons, Curb Your Enthusiasm) is on directorial duties, so we’ll get plenty of cringe-inducing and slapstick humor as part of the story, too. Some of Succession‘s executive producing team, including Frank Rich, are also on board.

Then there’s White House Plumbers‘ absolutely stacked cast. Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Lena Headey, Domhnall Gleeson, F. Murray Abraham, Judy Greer, Kiernan Shipka, and Ike Barinholtz are just some of the big names attached to this project. Add in the fact that White House Plumbers is based on the shockingly true story concerning the Watergate scandal and, of this trio of spy-centric shows, HBO’s offering could be the most dramatic and historically appealing of the lot. You can bet it’ll be part of our best HBO Max shows list soon.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that Citadel and White House Plumbers will crash and burn. Maybe they’ll be critically panned pre-release. Maybe they won’t resonate with a wider audience. With other highly anticipated TV shows launching around late April/early May, such as Dead Ringers and Sweet Tooth season 2, they might not perform as expected.

Regardless that happening, fans of the spy genre have three high-quality shows to look forward to (or, in The Night Agent‘s case, to enjoy right now). It’s been a long time since we can say that. Maybe, just maybe, this is a huge turning point for espionage fare on the small screen. Heaven knows we’ve been waiting a while for such a watershed moment.

For more spy genre-based coverage, read about the latest Star Wars espionage drama in our Andor review. Additionally, check out our ranking of every Daniel Craig James Bond movie, or watch these seven bloodpumping spy thrillers while we wait for The Night Agent season 2.

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Apple’s hardware ‘suicide squad’ now includes rivals Samsung and LG, with plans for an OLED MacBook as early as next year.

The hotly-anticipated OLED models of the MacBook Air could be closer than expected, with both Samsung and LG now roped in to develop new displays for Apple, according to Chinese tech news site The Elec.

We’ve known for a while that an OLED MacBook has been on the cards for Apple, with multiple tipsters claiming in recent months that the tech giant is shooting for a potential 2024 release.

The new information provided by The Elec has finally put some hard truths to these rumors, with evidence that Apple has specifically contracted Samsung to produce OLED panels for a new 13.3-inch MacBook Air. The ‘LiquidRetina’ mini-LED displays found in the current-generation M2 MacBook Air could finally be on the way out, with informers claiming that OLED’s power efficiency and brightness make it an attractive move for Apple.

This move is likely to cause some heads to shake at Samsung’s rival company LG, which has historically been behind Apple’s screens. Apple lacks the resources and expertise to develop displays itself, so outsources production to other manufacturers.

LG is, however, apparently developing OLED screens for new 11- and 13-inch iPad Pros. Speculation from The Elec suggests that LG simply didn’t have the capacity to take on an order for new OLED MacBook Air panels, leading Apple to approach Samsung’s display division instead. Samsung may also be developing an 11-inch OLED screen for Apple, indicating that it may produce some OLED iPad displays too.

Analysis: It looks like Apple’s OLED MacBook Air plans are on track, but I’ve got one big concern

All of this further reinforces the suggestion that Apple will indeed have an OLED MacBook Air ready to go for the rumored 2024 launch date – although it’s unclear whether this will actually be the next generation of MacBooks.

We’ve already seen speculation that Apple will deliver powerful new MacBooks equipped with the Apple M3 chip this year, including a MacBook Air (2023), and it seems unlikely that those new OLED panels will be ready to go in 2023 – so we might see one more interstitial release before Apple’s mini-LED screens get dumped for good.

The Elec’s report claims that the 13.3-inch OLED panel being developed for a future MacBook Air will serve as a trial run for larger MacBook Pro models – while the planned OLED iPads may themselves be a test for implementing the technology into MacBooks. It appears that Samsung was previously contracted to develop a 10.86-inch OLED screen for an unreleased iPad Air model, but that project was ultimately canned due to concerns over supply and reliability issues.

I’ve still got one big fear, though: pricing. The latest MacBook Air already saw a significant price jump from the still-excellent 2020 M1 model, and there are fears that a planned OLED iPad Pro might be much more expensive than its predecessors – to the point where it could cost more than a current-gen MacBook Pro.

In a world of rising inflation, stagnant wages, and a widening gulf between the rich and poor, this sort of tech hardware price-gouging really bothers me. Sure, MacBooks have always been premium products (you’ll probably never see one on our best cheap laptops list), but Apple is running the risk of appearing elitist here.

If an OLED iPad Pro is going to cost a bomb, I’m seriously concerned about what OLED MacBook Air pricing could look like. The worst part of it is that the Air is supposed to be Apple’s more accessible laptop – leave the ludicrous pricing for the MacBook Pro please, guys. If we get a 2024 MacBook Air that costs more than $1,199, I’m gonna be annoyed.

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