Trend Micro: our macOS apps steal browser history ‘by mistake’
The macOS apps from security company Trend Micro accidentally swiped users’ browsing history, the company claims. That would have come through the reuse of code from other applications for the business market.
The uploads of the browser history are no longer in the applications, claims Trend Micro. All logs that were stored on AWS servers have also been deleted. “We discovered that the function to collect browser history was designed in combination with some of our other applications and then used in the same way in security applications and apps that have nothing to do with security, which we have corrected.”
The statement that the code accidentally in apps like Dr. Unarchiver and Dr. Cleaner was the second statement that Trend Micro has given. At first the company said that the code was consciously included. “This was a one-time data collection, done for security purposes, namely to see if a user had recently encountered adware or other threats, and thus to improve our products and services.” Moreover, the security company said, people could have known that it was happening. “The possible collection and use of browser history was explicitly stated in the conditions that users accepted when installing the apps.”
Apple removed the apps recently from the macOS App Store, after it appeared that the apps uploaded the browser history. At that time, Dr. Cleaner to the top twenty most popular free applications in the download store.