Symantec, which developed software to protect computers from hackers 25 years ago, says it no longer thinks of antivirus as a "moneymaker in any way".
Brian Dye, senior vice president for information security, said software only catches around 45% of malware attacks because hackers are increasingly sophisticated.
Its CEO claims that the data collection was legal.
An Avast antivirus subsidiary sells 'Every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site.' Its clients have included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, and McKinsey.
A shocking analysis of antivirus apps with many of these apps [that failed] also appeared to have been developed by the same programmer on an assembly line
