This morning, our colleagues who work on our Avast SecureLine VPN product informed us that there was a significant increase in downloads in the U.S. This made us curious, as we didn’t have any specific campaigns running that would explain this dramatic spike in downloads. In the App Store, we jumped tothe 6^th spot in the utilities category (and as we were coming from the 200^th spot, this says a lot)!

We decided to turn to Twitter to see what was going on and discovered that teenagers were the cause of the trend. This shouldn’t have really surprised us, as teens are trendsetters and experts at dispersing viral content via social media channels.

Why would our Avast SecureLine VPN go viral amongst teens?

Why are American teens downloading our Avast SecureLine VPN to access content via our server in New York? We know a lot of people like to use our VPN product to watch content from home while travelling, but we have never seen this many people connecting to a server within their own country.

AP (Advanced Placement) scores available on the East Coast first

Reading through the product-centered tweets, we realized why so many teens were downloading our VPN – they wanted to see their AP scores ASAP :). Apparently, APscore.org announced that the results of AP exams would be published by location, the first region being the East Coast.

What is Avast SecureLine VPN and how did it help students across the U.S. (to hopefully sleep well at night knowing they did well on their AP tests!)

Avast SecureLine VPN (virtual private network) creates a virtual shield and tunnels traffic to a proxy server. The proxy server protects your personal data, thus preventing hackers from accessing your files and other sensitive information stored on your device. Avast SecureLine VPN also anonymizes your location, an added advantage that can be used when you’re travelling and want to access content that may otherwise be blocked. Alternatively, like in the case of all these students, access your AP scores as if you were from viewing them from New York!

In 7 days Avast will be wondering why all these kids downloaded SecureLine VPN but didnt want to buy the license. It's not your fault, Avast

— Vaibhav Shastry (@Vibes_Shastry) July 7, 2015

We are afraid Vaibhav may be right (we appreciate your condolences man!)...

However, we decided to extended the 7-day free trial for an additional 30 days and have come up with a list of reasons why you AP students should continue to use Avast SecureLine:

• You’ll be starting college soon and we suspect that means you will be spending many hours at Starbucks studying, writing papers, hanging out with your friends or on dates. This means you’ll be using Starbucks’ free Wi-Fi and, as with other things in life, we highly recommend you use protection! Wi-Fi hacking doesn’t require a high level of skill and when you connect to open Wi-Fi networks, hackers can see which websites you’re visiting, what you’re looking for on Amazon or eBay – it’s as if they are peering over your shoulder (creepy!). Avast SecureLine encrypts your data, thus protecting you from Wi-Fi snoops.
• You may study abroad (and I personally recommend you do so!). Studying abroad is great – you learn a different language, get to know other cultures, sample exotic foods, and make tons of friends from across the globe – but you will probably miss home during this exciting time. Avast SecureLine can bring you a bit closer to home to help with homesickness. Content like Netflix, Hulu and Pandora is not always available in countries outside of the U.S., but with SecureLine VPN, you can connect to a server in the states to watch your favorite shows from home or listen to the latest hits your friends are all raving about.
• A one-year subscription of SecureLine for Android and iOS costs as much as a selfie stick. As nifty as selfie sticks are, they are banned in many places, such as Disney theme parks, the Palace of Versailles and the majority of museums and concert halls across the world. So, instead of buying a selfie stick you can’t use in all the cool places you want to visit this summer, invest in one year of SecureLine VPN to protect you during your first (and hopefully best) year of college :)

SecureLine VPN is available for PC, Mac, Android and iOS.