Apple removes "adware doctor" from the mac app store for collecting users' browsing data

Within the utilities category, one of the best selling apps in the Mac App Store has been removed from the store by Apple. Apparently, this application collected the browsing history of the users who installed it on their computers.

Adware Doctor disappears from the Mac App Store, but the problem was already known

Already on August 20, the account @ Privacyis1st published this video on their Twitter profile showing how the application "Adware Doctor" steals data from users. More recently, security researcher Patrick Wardle has delved into this matter and shared his research in the TechCrunch publication.

In the information contained by Adware Doctor in the Mac App Store it is said that "it will keep your Mac safe" and "it will eliminate annoying pop-up ads". The application was so popular that, in the United States, it was number 5 in the top of paid applications, only surpassed by such popular applications as Notability and Apple's own Final Cut Pro.

Wardle explains that Adware Doctor appropriates confidential user data, mainly their browsing and search history, and sends it to servers located in China and managed by the application's own managers. After the aforementioned video was published, Apple was contacted a month ago, however, the app has remained on sale in the Mac App Store until the scandal broke again.

This is how TechCrunch collects Wardle's findings:

Wardle discovered that the downloaded app jumped through hoops to bypass Apple's Mac sandboxing features, which prevents apps from picking up data on the hard drive, and loading a user's browsing history in Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Wardle discovered that the application, thanks to Apple's own flawed examination, could request access to the user's home directory and its files. That's not out of the ordinary, Wardle says, because tools that promote themselves as anti-malware or anti-adware expect to have access to user files to look for trouble. When a user allows that access, the application can detect and clean adware, but if it is found to be malicious, it can "collect and filter any user files, " Wardle said.

Once the data is collected, it is compressed into a file and sent to a domain in China.

Wardle has also noted that Adware Doctor has been "filtering users' browsing history, possibly for years." On the other hand, he also blames Apple for the facts since the company promotes the Mac App Store as "the safest place to download applications for your Mac", which is often true. But since the app violates numerous rules and guidelines of the app store, that is, Wardle believes that Apple should withdraw the app (which has already happened) and refund the money to all affected users.

Finally, the Adblock Master application, from the same developer, has also been removed from the Mac App Store.