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Do we like Norton (Gen Digital)?

Consumer cyber-safety software (Norton, Avast, AVG, LifeLock, Avira); Gen Digital is based in Tempe, Arizona.

Our score: 4 out of 10. Mixed. Useful security products, but its Avast arm was fined for selling users' browsing data and there have been settlements and a crypto-mining row. We'd be cautious.

Gen Digital began as Symantec's consumer arm, then NortonLifeLock. In 2022 it merged with Avast and rebranded as Gen. It now owns Norton, Avast, AVG, LifeLock, Avira and CCleaner. Vincent Pilette has been CEO since 2019, and Avast's former CEO Ondrej Vlcek joined as president.

The big blot is Avast. In February 2024 the FTC fined it $16.5 million. The FTC said that between 2014 and 2020 it harvested users' browsing data and sold it to data brokers. For a privacy product, that's awful. Avast said it disagreed with the allegations but was pleased to resolve the matter.

Then there was Norton Crypto. In 2022, Norton 360 shipped an opt-in cryptominer, and NortonLifeLock kept 15% of what was mined. Krebs reported that long-time customers were horrified. It was opt-in, but it's a strange thing to put in a security product.

The legal record is busy too. Gen's SEC filings describe a $9.95M class-action settlement fund over Norton products. They also describe a shareholder case that settled with governance reforms, and a False Claims Act case over Symantec government contracts with $53M in damages and penalties. We'd hold off on backing them.

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