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Mac-Forums Investigates MacKeeper

pigoo3

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Sounds like u just described malware to a T.

I think that the difference between malware and a "badly coded piece of poo that has very aggressive marketing".

Folks writing malware fully intend (from the start) for the program to be malicious, damaging, and dangerous. I'm going to give the MacKeeper folks the benefit of the doubt...and say that they had positive intentions.:)

I do agree though...don't walk...RUN...away from anything to do with MacKeeper!!!

- Nick
 
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I think that the difference between malware and a "badly coded piece of poo that has very aggressive marketing".

Folks writing malware fully intend (from the start) for the program to be malicious, damaging, and dangerous. I'm going to give the MacKeeper folks the benefit of the doubt...and say that they had positive intentions.:)

I do agree though...don't walk...RUN...away from anything to do with MacKeeper!!!

- Nick

I ended up with one of their extensions accidentally installed into Chrome. I didnt want to install it. And it was a nitemare til I removed it.

Nothing positive about it. If their product was in any way positive, they wouldnt need to resort to such shady ways of getting it installed onto people's computers.

My initial post was that they operate in the same fashion as malware. And I still stand by that statement.
 

pigoo3

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My initial post was that they operate in the same fashion as malware. And I still stand by that statement.

I can definitely understand folks feeling this way.:) MacKeeper in some ways does seem to "operate" like malware (and the aggressive marketing/advertising). But I don't think that we can truly call it "malware". It comes back to the initial intent of the developers.

MacKeeper has been available for quite a while. I think that if MacKeeper truly was malware...it would have been "pulled from the shelves" long ago. But I do think that they are walking a very fine line between good/evil. Maybe they're walking the same fine line legally.

MacKeeper is legitimate software (no matter how disliked it is by some/many folks)...and reviewed by legitimate reviewers. I don't think that a true malware app can claim this.

- Nick
 
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I can definitely understand folks feeling this way.:) MacKeeper in some ways does seem to "operate" like malware (and the aggressive marketing/advertising). But I don't think that we can truly call it "malware". It comes back to the initial intent of the developers.

MacKeeper has been avaiable for quite a while. I think that if MacKeeper truly was malware...it would have been "pulled from the shelves" long ago. But I do think that they are walking a very fine line between good/evil. Maybe they're walking the same fine line legally.

MacKeeper is legitimate software (no matter how disliked it is by some/many folks)...and reviewed by legitimate reviewers. I don't think that a true malware app can claim this.

- Nick

Well said.
 
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I ended up with one of their extensions accidentally installed into Chrome. I didnt want to install it. And it was a nitemare til I removed it.

Nothing positive about it. If their product was in any way positive, they wouldnt need to resort to such shady ways of getting it installed onto people's computers.

My initial post was that they operate in the same fashion as malware. And I still stand by that statement.

I think you are completely misunderstanding what is going on with your system. It sounds like you have infested your Mac with adware that just happens to be advertising MacKeeper (and who knows what else). The developers of MacKeeper didn't put that malware on your system or even write it. They may not even be aware that their software is being advertised via adware/malware. Heck, there are banner ads periodically here on these forums for MacKeeper, but the admins have no control over the content of the ads.
 
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I think you are completely misunderstanding what is going on with your system. It sounds like you have infested your Mac with adware that just happens to be advertising MacKeeper (and who knows what else). The developers of MacKeeper didn't put that malware on your system or even write it. They may not even be aware that their software is being advertised via adware/malware. Heck, there are banner ads periodically here on these forums for MacKeeper, but the admins have no control over the content of the ads.

Very much could be true.

Similar to the adware that has been infecting people's iPhones of late. Everytime youre browsing the net on iOS the dang app store will automatically open trying to get you to download CandyCrush or some other crap app.

The developers of CandyCrush arent the ones responsible, so they say. And the dynamic nature of the root of the redirects are making it impossible for authorities to track down the source.

I got it after installing a few similar apps from the app store. Removed those crappy apps, and the ad redirects went away.
 
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I got it after installing a few similar apps from the app store. Removed those crappy apps, and the ad redirects went away.

Everything in the app store is Sandboxed, so I really don't think downloading a certain type of App would cause this on your iPhone. Apple wouldn't allow it through their Review Process either.
 
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Everything in the app store is Sandboxed, so I really don't think downloading a certain type of App would cause this on your iPhone. Apple wouldn't allow it through their Review Process either.

They cant track it. It's ad-redirects. Theyre trying aggressively to figure it out but it's really tough.

Do a google search on it. It's been a epidemic. Most people dont know how to get rid of the problem.

But I knew that the app store pop ups started instantly after I downloaded 3 apps. I didnt know which one caused the problem but all 3 were similar in genre. So I just deleted all 3. The ad pop ups stopped immediately.
 
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Everything in the app store is Sandboxed, so I really don't think downloading a certain type of App would cause this on your iPhone. Apple wouldn't allow it through their Review Process either.

I can vouch for this. Some game (I forget what it was now) kept exiting every couple minutes to throw up an ad for Candy Crush. It'd close, open Safari, then open the App Store. Very very irritating. Seen the same thing for Clash of Clans.

Oh... I just checked my purchase history. It was Happy Hills 2. It lasted all of 5 minutes before I yanked it due to this nonsense.
 
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**** . . . I must only download the good ones. I would be sending in a report to Apple about this, because its down right wrong. I know touching a Advert in-game does this, but didn't know it happened automatically.

Sorry for not fact finding first.
 
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**** . . . I must only download the good ones. I would be sending in a report to Apple about this, because its down right wrong. I know touching a Advert in-game does this, but didn't know it happened automatically.

I'm wondering if there technically is a touch event that triggers it, but is "hidden" in the game. I may just go ahead and re-download it, then file that report.

Sorry for not fact finding first.

No sweat. It caught me completely by surprise when it happened. It just never occurred to me that this wasn't supposed to happen. You'd think this would have been caught straight off on submission when testing it.
 
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You'd think this would have been caught straight off on submission when testing it.
I'm guessing that this is a case of Apple only being able to test so much. The real world has an amazing ability to find flaws in products that testing never seems to reveal.
 
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**** . . . I must only download the good ones. I would be sending in a report to Apple about this, because its down right wrong. I know touching a Advert in-game does this, but didn't know it happened automatically.

Sorry for not fact finding first.


Apple knows about it. They are aggressively trying very hard to figure it out according to every article I read.

The nature of the beast doesnt make it easy. Heck, it might be impossible to track down or fix. They might have to change the entire way in-app ad code is written.

Luckily I figured out it came from a app I downloaded. Lifesabeach also figured it out as well. But most people dont. They just keep getting the same Clash of Clans and Candy Crush ads and get super mad at those games. But according to the articles on the subject, apparently those games have nothing to do with it.
 
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Apple knows about it. They are aggressively trying very hard to figure it out according to every article I read.

The nature of the beast doesnt make it easy. Heck, it might be impossible to track down or fix. They might have to change the entire way in-app ad code is written.

Luckily I figured out it came from a app I downloaded. Lifesabeach also figured it out as well. But most people dont. They just keep getting the same Clash of Clans and Candy Crush ads and get super mad at those games. But according to the articles on the subject, apparently those games have nothing to do with it.

I just remembered something, or imagined I remembered something. It seems I had this going on when I wasn't even using the game in question. It was closed, but probably still active in the background while I was doing something else. I was just using some other app, and then out of the blue the app would close and Safari would open up with the same re-directs I got while in-game. The problem was solved by removing that Happy Hills 2 from the App Switcher. Once I figured that out, that was the last straw and I deleted it and never had a problem since. I don't know how Apple can not know how this is happening, but the obvious thing to start with would be to ban the games/apps that are causing this behavior, and the developer(s).
 
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I just remembered something, or imagined I remembered something. It seems I had this going on when I wasn't even using the game in question. It was closed, but probably still active in the background while I was doing something else. I was just using some other app, and then out of the blue the app would close and Safari would open up with the same re-directs I got while in-game. The problem was solved by removing that Happy Hills 2 from the App Switcher. Once I figured that out, that was the last straw and I deleted it and never had a problem since. I don't know how Apple can not know how this is happening, but the obvious thing to start with would be to ban the games/apps that are causing this behavior, and the developer(s).


Yep, that's exactly the way that crap works. It's going on in the background whether you have the app it came with or not.

Like you, I thought that by banning the apps/games that this comes with would fix the problem also, but that isnt the case.

Here is a article that describes the issue in better words than I can.

Shady App Install Ads Are Automatically Redirecting Mobile Users To App Store, Google Play | TechCrunch
 
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It's called buy software if you buy it the full unlocked version will be better and usually isn't i would rather use a free alternative
 
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It's called buy software if you buy it the full unlocked version will be better and usually isn't i would rather use a free alternative

Spare me the snark. The game I had this problem with was a sequel to one I had paid for, and would have GLADLY paid for this one to "unlock it" or even kill the ads if that was even an option. Games that let you pay to "unlock" them are increasingly uncommon. It's called "freemium" and they want to to keep paying over and over again for virtual coins and goods while double dipping with ads.
 
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Thanks Lifeisabeach, great article.
 
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Mackeeper and what about Clean my Mac

Thank you for your article! A couple of queries:
1) I've been happily using "Clean my Mac" after scuttling MKeeper, but are they somehow in cahoots with Mkeeper?
2) Will I find, in your article about Mac protection anything on anti-virus protection that covers both Mac and the Windows partition in my Mac? I know Kaspersky has something, but I'm wondering if there are alternatives.
Thanks in advance!
 

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