Last week, a report detailed how one of the top paid utility apps on the Mac App Store was quietly stealing the browser history of its users and uploading it to a server in China.
Some of these apps are Adware Doctor, Adware Medic, Dr.
These rogue apps will also collect data from other apps installed on the system, all of which is gathered the moment you launch them, according to 9to5Mac.
Trend Micro's initial investigation confirmed data collection by a number of its apps, but the company tried to play down the significance of this.
The company notes that it disclosed this data collection in its end-user license agreements and that browser history data was uploaded to a United States server hosted by Amazon Web Services and managed by Trend Micro.
A report said to be published by cybersecurity vendor Trend Micro says people had been complaining that Dr. Unarchiver, Dr.
Observing the behavior of the apps, the researcher noticed that they received at runtime a JSON file with different codes, which suggests that the apps retrieve commands from the mother ship for data exfiltration.
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9to5Mac| Sample browsing data collected by the app.
Macs have a reputation for having better security than Windows machines, mainly thanks to the Mac App Store, and Apple's supposedly stringent rules for allowing apps to be included there.
Giving an app access to your home directory means that it can potentially access your browsing history, iMessage conversations, emails and more. However, since then other similarly problematic apps have been discovered. While Apple has already removed all these apps from the store, the shock for many is that the Mac App Store review policy didn't catch the nefarious action in the first place.
Also removed is App Uninstall (spotted by security researcher Joshua Long), another product under Trend Micro's developer account.
Despite cases like this, however, App Stores are safer than the wild internet as curtain - even one that is many times perfunctory - can still screen risky apps more often than not. At no point was user consent requested, nor where users alerted that this happening behind the scenes.
Apps collect data such as Global Positioning System coordinates, WiFi network IDs and more, and pass all of it to advertising and monetization firms.
