Top-selling iOS utilities ad blocker app caught exfiltrating browser histories

In September 2018, security researcher Patrick Wardle found that Adware Doctor, the top-selling paid utilities app in the US Mac App Store, was exfiltrating the browser history of anyone who downloaded it and sending it to a developer. Adware Doctor is intended to protect browsers against adware. A month after Wardle notified Apple, the app remained in the store; it and the same developer's AdBlock Master were removed shortly after TechCrunch published his findings.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/09/07/adware-doctor-stealing-history/; https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/07/a-top-tier-app-in-apples-mac-app-store-will-steal-your-browser-history/

Writer: Mitchel Broussard; Zack Whittaker

Publication: MacRumors; TechCrunch