News Precinct

The News Precinct has been designated as a Possibly Unwanted Program (PUP), due to the modifications that it does to a user's browser settings to promote the fake newsprecinct.com search engine. Usually, PUPs are distributed through bundled free software installers and bogus program updates. However, News Precinct also seems to have built a page advertising its ''Chrome extension.'' Meanwhile, HyperConnect Media, the company that appears to be behind the News Precinct website, has a physical contact address that, apparently, is a UPS Store in Spring Hill, Florida.

Once the News Precinct extension/PUP has been installed on your system, it will redirect all traffic through its own search engine. However, as the search engine is fake, it will show results generated by other, legitimate search engines, such as Yahoo. Meanwhile, the browser hijacker is capable of collecting data about the user's browsing habits, such as search queries, geolocations, visited pages, IP addresses and other information.

Considering the fact that the people behind the News Precinct can sell your data to third parties, having such applications installed can pose a real threat for browsing safety, online privacy and even lead to identity theft. Removing browser hijackers such as News Precinct, QuericsSearch, and Elementary Data Search as soon as you notice their activity is always recommended.