Avast Partners and Celebrity Chef Demystify Online Cookies

Avast, a digital security and privacy company, has partnered with chef, television personality and author Carla Hall for “Accept All Cookies?,” a campaign to raise awareness around online safety. Carla shares tips and tricks on safely managing internet cookies and protecting users’ privacy this holiday season – together with simple cookie recipes. 

“I might be an expert at baking cookies, but when I kept seeing these buttons saying, ‘accept all cookies,’ I wasn’t so sure I understood internet cookies,” says Hall. “These days everyone knows that their information can be tracked online, but most don’t understand what that means. We are all spending a lot more time online, but a lot of people go on the internet without feeling safe or secure. Many find themselves overwhelmed by the complexity of the online world. That's why this holiday season, I’ve partnered with Avast to help inform everyone – from kids to grandparents – to offer simple actions to avoid unsavory circumstances with their security and privacy online, and share some delicious holiday cookie recipes, too.” 

Hall and Avast produced a series of educational content that brings together the love of baking holiday goods and easily digestible information on what cookies are, how they work, what kind of dangers cookies pose and how internet users can control them. The security brand also shared a simple recipe for online privacy that includes: 

“Threats are increasing online, and more than ever those threats are to your privacy and personal information,” says Shane McNamee, chief privacy officer, Avast. “We have all become so used to hearing about how we are being tracked online that it can feel like the price we have to pay to use the internet. But it doesn't need to be that way, and more importantly, it doesn't need to be hard to take control of your privacy. At Avast, we have been working for 30 years to keep everyday consumers safe online and we want, with this and other campaigns, to help empower people and give them the tools and knowledge they need to keep themselves and their family safe, especially during the holiday season.”  

Hall created several recipes like the cranberry ginger Linzer torte and the painted shortbread to help make it fun and delicious to learn about privacy online. She and Avast will also donate 1,000 copies of her new children's book, "Carla's Christmas Cornbread," to the Pajama Project, which promotes and supports a comforting bedtime routine and healthy sleep by providing cozy pajamas, inspiring storybooks and critical sleep health education resources to help children thrive.  

Avast has created a dedicated space with everything internet users need to know about digital cookies and how to take control of their privacy: Avast.com/cookies. The page also hosts exclusive recipes Carla created for this campaign.  

Avast's free products Avast One Essential, Avast Online Security & Privacy extension and Avast Secure Browser are available for download and are compatible with a range of services and operating systems.