Ett av de mest populära programmen i Mac App Store, Adware Doctor, har avslöjats med att stjäla användarnas webbläsarhistorik och skicka informationen till servrar i Kina.
Det är säkerhetsexperten Patrick Wardle som har slagit larm vilket lett till att programmet nu stoppats och plockats bort ur Mac App Store.
According to Patrick Wardle, chief research officer at Digita Security and founder of Mac security company Objective-See, Apple was informed of Adware Doctor’s suspicious functionality last month, but has failed to take action.
The app is currently listed on Apple’s Mac App Store as the company’s fourth-highest “Top Paid” software programs, behind Final Cut Pro, Magnet and Logic Pro X. It is also the store’s No. 1 paid utility. The app currently costs $4.99, is validly signed by Apple, and its listing on the Mac App Store is accompanied a majority of lavishly positive five-star reviews. Adware Doctor promotes its app as preventing “malware and malicious files from infecting your Mac.”
Undersökningen
Patrick waddle har gjort en noggrann undersökning av vad AdWare Doctor har för sig efter det att det installerats.
As noted Adware Doctor has a long history of questionable behavior, and now acts in a manner that clearly violates Apple’s App Store stringent rules and policies…in many ways! For example in the “Data Collection and Storage” section of the “App Store Rules & Guidelines” it states that:
■ Apps that collect user or usage data must secure user consent for the collection.
■ Apps must respect the user’s permission settings and not attempt to… trick, or force people to consent to unnecessary data access.
■ Developers that use their apps to surreptitiously discover …private data, will be removed from the Developer Program.
At no point does Adware Doctor ask to exfiltrate your browser history. And its access to this very private data is clearly based on deceiving the user.
Tveksamheter
Det finns flera tveksamheter runt programmet och dess utvecklare, bland annat så ska programmet ha bytt namn ch ertappats med att bryta mot Apples regelverk vid tidigare tillfällen. Trots det så har programmet släppts in i Mac App Store, fram till nu.
0 kommentarer