Home Malware Programs Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) Privacy Search Plus

Privacy Search Plus

Posted: April 12, 2017

Threat Metric

Ranking: 3,868
Threat Level: 1/10
Infected PCs: 5,415
First Seen: April 12, 2017
Last Seen: October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows

The Privacy Search Plus is a browser extension that promises users that it will help them preserve their privacy online by hiding some of their data from the search engines they use, and other popular pages they visit. Strangely enough, the Privacy Search Plus' official page does not mention how the extension achieves this, nor does it reveal any other features that the Privacy Search Plus may have to offer. A sneak peek at the Terms & Conditions published on the website reveals that installing the Privacy Search Plus may lead to a silent change to the Web browser's default new tab page. The information does not reveal whether this applies to all Web browsers or not, and a quick test showed that installing it on Google Chrome does not lead to any changes to the user's settings. However, this leads to the question: how does the Privacy Search Plus help users preserve their privacy online exactly? The question is unanswered for now, but if this program is similar to other software of the same sort, then it is likely that in the future it may change the user's default new tab page to a 3rd-party search engine that is supposed to hide their search queries from the marketing teams of major search engines. There's no way to tell with utter certainty whether this will happen, but it is the most likely method that the Privacy Search Plus may use to 'help' users.

The Privacy Search Plus is not unsafe, and having it on your computer is not a sign of anything suspicious or potentially harmful activity. However, please note that the Privacy Search Plus is categorized as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) so that it is not one of the most trustworthy applications out there, and it is likely that there's a better alternative to it. If you have the Privacy Search Plus on your computer and you don't want to continue using this extension, then it is in your interest to remove it. The removal of the Privacy Search Plus does not require the use of specialized security software necessarily, but using such utilities would guarantee that all of the PUP's files will be erased.

Loading...