This was a one-time data collection, done for security purposes (to analyze whether a user had recently encountered adware or other threats, and thus to improve the product & service).” reads the official reply published by the company. “Dr Cleaner, Dr Cleaner Pro, Dr Antivirus, Dr Unarchiver, Dr Battery, and Duplicate Finder collected and uploaded a small snapshot of the browser history on a one-time basis, covering the 24 hours prior to installation. Wardle highlighted that the applications he analyzed were signed off by Trend Micro and approved by Apple.

“The uploaded ‘history.zip’ archive is password protected:” And what do you think that might be? If you guessed the history.zip file you would be correct!” wrote Wardle. “Moreover, the network proxy monitor ( Charles Proxy) captures a connection attempt from Adware Doctor to :” “By editing the system’s /etc/hosts file we can redirect this request to a server we control and can capture what Adware Doctor is trying to upload. The security researcher that handle the Twitter account Privacy First first reported the alleged unethical behavior and published a video that shows how the app harvest users ‘data.įormer NSA white hat hacker Patrick Wardle reported last week that Trend Micro apps were also collecting users’ personal data including their browsing history and then uploaded that data in a password-protected archive to a server. At the time of writing, it is not clear if Trend Micro removed the apps itself following complaints or if Apple removed them due to their activities.

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