Trend Micro’s macOS apps were recently removed from the App Store after the apps were found to be uploading browser history. The security company now claims that the apps ‘accidentally’ stole the browser history.
The theft would be due to the reuse of code from other applications for the business market, explains the company in a blog. According to Trend Micro, browser history uploads are no longer included in the applications. Furthermore, the company has removed all logs. Those logs were stored on AWS servers.
The functionality that had ‘accidentally’ ended up in the apps was used in a number of apps. The function was then also used for security apps and other apps. “We’ve adjusted this,” says the company. The code was found in the apps Dr. Cleaner, Dr. Cleaner Pro, Dr. Antivirus, Dr. Unarchiver, Dr. Battery and Duplicate Finder.
Conscious
Earlier, the company said that the code was deliberately included. “This was a one-time data collection that was set up for security purposes,” the company said in its first statement. “The data was used to analyze whether a user had recently encountered adware or other dangers, in order to improve the product and services.
In addition, users could have known that the browser history was being saved, according to the company. This would have been included in the conditions that users accepted at installation. All data was stored on an American server, hosted by AWS and controlled by Trend Micro itself.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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