Apple Removes Several Trend Micro Apps For Collecting MacOS Users' Data
Sep 11, 2018
Apple has removed almost all popular security apps offered by well-known cyber-security vendor Trend Micro from its official Mac App Store after they were caught stealing users' sensitive data without their consent. The controversial apps in question include Dr Cleaner, Dr Cleaner Pro, Dr Antivirus, Dr Unarchiver, App Uninstall, Dr. Battery, and Duplicate Finder for Mac computers. The apps were removed just two days after Apple kicked out another popular "Adware Doctor" application for collecting and sending browser history data from users' Safari, Chrome, and Firefox to a server in China. "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)," Trend Micro argued. The suspicious behavior of Trend Micro apps was initially reported by a user on the Malwarebytes forum in December 2017, which was last weekend re-con