App uses machine learning to automatically block telemarketing and unsolicited phone calls

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., November 21, 2016 – Avast Software, the leader in digital security products for consumers and businesses, today announced the company’s new Avast Call Blocker app for iOS, now available for download on the Apple App Store. The new app enables users to automatically block telemarketing and unsolicited calls without compromising user privacy.

The app protects users through an advanced algorithm powered by machine learning, that analyzes millions of data points to quickly determine if the call should be blocked. To protect users’ privacy, Avast does not collect their personal information and does not access their address book.

Designed to empower users against the influx of telemarketing calls, the new app:

• Warns users about telemarketing calls before they answer, or automatically blocks the calls.
  
• Allows users to create a blacklist to avoid unsolicited calls and conversations from any contact or unidentified number.
  
• Protects privacy by relying on an extensive telemarketing phone number database and publicly available information.
  

Telemarketing calls have become the new normal. Recent research completed by Avast found that a sample of 170,000 telemarketers made 4.3 million calls to Avast customers in the last 30 days. Roughly 34 percent of those calls were answered and carried on for at least 30 seconds. At this rate, the average user loses more than two hours of his or her time on these calls every year.

Avast Call Blocker uses advanced machine learning technology to identify telemarketing numbers by looking at their calling behavior, and leverages public resources like the Federal Communications Commission database. Avast also encourages users to report new telemarketing numbers to further refine the company’s growing database of unwanted numbers.

“Avast Call Blocker is the first line of defense to protect your valuable time,” says Gagan Singh, senior vice president and general manager of mobile at Avast. “We’ve created an easy to use application that protects users from annoying calls without sacrificing privacy.”

The Avast Call Blocker app is the latest addition to Avast’s iOS product portfolio, which includes a range of privacy, security, storage optimization and Wi-Fi utility apps. Avast Call Blocker is a premium, subscription-based iOS app that is now available to all iOS 10 users in the U.S. and Canada. You can download the app here: https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1147552667?mt=8