“A popular top-tier app in Apple’s Mac App Store was found pilfering browser histories from anyone who downloads it,” Zack Whittaker reports for TechCrunch. “Yet still, at the time of writing, the rogue app — Adware Doctor — stands as the No.1 grossing paid app in the app store’s utilities categories. But Apple was warned weeks ago and did nothing to pull the app offline.”
“While it’s not uncommon to hear of dangerous apps slipping into Google’s Play store, it’s nearly unheard of for Apple to face the same fate,” Whittaker reports. “Any app that doesn’t meet the company’s strict security and sometimes moral criteria will be rejected, and users won’t able to install it.”
“This app promises to ‘keep your Mac safe’ and ‘get rid of annoying pop-up ads’ — and even ‘discover and remove threats on your Mac,'” Whittaker reports. “But what the app won’t tell you is that for just a few bucks it’ll steal and download your browser history — including all the sites you’ve searched for or accessed — to servers in China run by the app’s makers.”
Read more in the full article here.
“There is rather a MASSIVE privacy issue here. Let’s face it, your browsing history provides a glimpse into almost every aspect of your life. And people have even been convicted of murder based largely on their internet searches,” Patrick Wardle writes for Objective-See. “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!”
“Though this was reported to Cupertino through official channels a month ago, the app remains in the Mac App Store even today!” Wardle writes. “The good news is, Apple can decisively act restoring our faith in both the Mac App Store, but more importantly in their commitment to all us users. How? Easy! By pulling the app and refunding all affected users. As though we’ll never get our browser history back, recovering our hard-earned money would be a start! Your move Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple, do the right thing and protect your claim of offering superior privacy protections to users of Apple products: Pull the app and issue refunds to Mac App Store customers who trusted Apple to protect them from such unscrupulous, privacy-trampling dreck.
MacDailyNews Note: 2:25pm EDT: TechCrunch reports that Apple has pulled Adware Doctor from their Mac App Store.