Avast refund: second payments to people who already filed

How much money is involved

The first round (December 2025) sent more than $13.5 million. The second round is 91,093 payments totaling more than $1.5 million. Avast agreed to pay $16.5 million under the FTC order.

Individual amounts vary and aren’t guaranteed. Only the refund administrator can tell you what, if anything, you’ll receive.

Who qualifies

• People who bought Avast antivirus software and filed a valid claim before June 5, 2025, and
• Who accepted their first payment (sent December 2025).
• New claims are not possible: the FTC says it is no longer accepting claims.

How you get paid

• Check, PayPal (deposited directly into your PayPal account), or Zelle (deposited directly into your bank account with a note about the settlement).
• Questions: refund administrator, 1-866-290-0165 (as listed by the FTC).

What the FTC alleged

• According to the FTC, Avast collected and sold users' browsing information to third parties without their consent.
• The FTC said Avast told users its products would block tracking cookies and "shield your privacy", while its subsidiary sold browsing data that could reveal sensitive details. The order bans Avast from selling or licensing web browsing data for advertising.

The psychology lesson: the halo effect of a protective label

When a product's whole identity is protection, like antivirus, a privacy shield or a security tool, we tend to trust everything else about it too. That's the halo effect (Thorndike, 1920; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977): one strong positive trait spills over onto traits we never checked. Nobody reads the data policy of the app that is supposed to keep them safe.

That's the irony in what the FTC alleged here. People paid to protect their privacy, and the company the FTC sued is the one it says sold their browsing data. A label is a claim, not a guarantee. The more reassuring the label, the less likely we are to check.

Your defense: for any "protection" product, ask one question a salesperson would rather you didn't: how does this company make money besides my subscription? If you can't find the answer, assume your data is part of it.

Beware refund scams

The FTC says it never asks you to pay money to get a refund. If someone calls, texts or emails offering to “speed up” or “guarantee” your payment for a fee, it’s a scam. Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Common questions