Avast SecureLine VPN is developed by Avast Software, a cybersecurity company founded in 1988 in Prague, Czech Republic. In 2022, Avast merged with NortonLifeLock to form Gen Digital (NASDAQ: GEN), a conglomerate that also owns Norton, AVG, Avira, and LifeLock. While Avast originally operated under Czech jurisdiction — outside the Five, Nine, and Fourteen Eyes surveillance alliances — its absorption into the US-headquartered Gen Digital raises questions about the practical implications for data governance. The VPN product itself remains registered under Czech jurisdiction.
The most critical issue prospective users must weigh is Avast's documented history of selling user data. From 2014 to 2020, Avast collected granular browsing data from users of its antivirus and browser extension products and sold it through its subsidiary, Jumpshot, to more than 100 third-party companies including advertising firms, data brokers, and marketing analytics companies. This data included every website visited, precise timestamps, device and browser types, and geographic location — linked to unique device identifiers that could potentially de-anonymize users. The FTC found that Avast's claims of anonymization were inadequate and that consumers were never properly informed or given meaningful consent. In February 2024, the FTC ordered Avast to pay $16.5 million and permanently banned the company from selling or licensing web browsing data for advertising purposes. The order was finalized in June 2024. Jumpshot was shut down in early 2020 after journalists at Motherboard and PCMag first exposed the practice.
On the technical side, Avast SecureLine operates approximately 700 servers across 36 countries and 58 locations. The United States has the best coverage with 16 city-level options, while most other countries have only a single server location. This network is notably smaller than leading competitors. The VPN shares infrastructure with AVG Secure VPN, meaning congestion on one service can affect the other. Supported protocols include OpenVPN (TCP/UDP), WireGuard, and Avast's proprietary Mimic protocol, which provides obfuscation to bypass VPN detection. However, protocol availability is inconsistent across platforms: WireGuard is only available on Windows and Android, and Apple devices lack OpenVPN and WireGuard support entirely.
Speed performance is mixed. On nearby servers using WireGuard, users can expect reasonable speeds with roughly a 20-33% reduction from baseline. Distant server connections show similar or slightly greater losses. OpenVPN performance is significantly worse, with speed reductions of 50-90% reported in testing. The Mimic protocol falls between the two. These results place Avast SecureLine in the middle of the pack — adequate for general browsing and standard-definition streaming, but potentially insufficient for bandwidth-intensive tasks.
Security features include AES-256 encryption with RSA-4096 key exchange, a kill switch (available on desktop but not consistently on mobile), and DNS leak protection. No DNS or WebRTC leaks were detected in independent testing. However, the VPN lacks several features found in top-tier competitors: there is no split tunneling on desktop, no Double VPN or multi-hop capability, no RAM-only server infrastructure, and no support for Linux, routers, smart TVs, or gaming consoles. The app is limited to Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Avast SecureLine's privacy policy states it does not log browsing activity, websites visited, or content accessed. However, it does retain connection logs for up to 30 days, including connection timestamps, subnet-level IP addresses, VPN server IP addresses, and data transfer volumes. The mobile apps include third-party trackers from Google Firebase Analytics, Google Crashlytics, and AppsFlyer. Crucially, no independent audit of the logging policy or infrastructure has ever been conducted — a significant gap given the company's track record with user data.
For streaming, results are inconsistent. Testing has shown the VPN can unblock Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer, but it frequently fails with Netflix, Hulu, and Paramount Plus. Torrenting is supported on eight dedicated P2P servers located in cities including Prague, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, New York, Miami, Seattle, London, and Paris. Pricing is competitive at $3.99/month on two- and three-year plans, with a 60-day free trial that requires no credit card.
The fundamental tension with Avast SecureLine is that a VPN is a privacy tool, and Avast has a proven, FTC-adjudicated record of violating user privacy at scale. While the Jumpshot operation has been shut down and the company now operates under an FTC consent order, the absence of independent audits means users must take Avast's current privacy claims on faith — a difficult proposition given the history.