Consumer Opinion Adware - How to remove

Consumer Opinion is a malicious app that infects Macs and causes various technical issues, such as blocked websites, pop-up ads, hijacked mouse cursor, crashing apps, etc. It’s adware (it shows unwanted ads), spyware (it collects data about its users), and it gets installed without permission.

Removing Consumer Opinion is a little complicated, as just uninstalling the app might not be enough. Luckily, if you delete all the components and restore all settings, this malware will disappear.

About Consumer Opinion:

Classification	Adware, trojan.
How Consumer Opinion affects a Mac	It causes redirects to unknown websites and can cause internet connection issues, it logs user data.
How this adware gets installed	It’s advertised online with fake ads, it’s included in installers disguised as safe and trusted apps.
How to remove Consumer Opinion	Remove all the apps that are related to Consumer Opinion and other malware (with Combo Cleaner or other anti-malware apps), restore the settings of your Mac and browsers.

How to remove Consumer Opinion

Consumer Opinion is a malicious app and it is helpful to use an antivirus application to remove it, but it won’t be enough: manual efforts will also be needed to fix various settings to make sure that Consumer Opinion is removed for good. As it is, this malicious app is extremely persistent and can’t be removed normally.

Remove suspicious apps

Consumer Opinion and other malicious apps need to be deleted after they are stopped from running. To make sure of that, reboot your Mac in safe mode. Hold the Shift key as your Mac is booting) – this stops processes that are unnecessary from starting and makes it easier to delete unnecessary apps. Then, just delete the Consumer Opinion app and other apps (GoSearch22, AuraSearch, UtilityData, etc.) from your Applications folder.

Delete unwanted apps

Consumer Opinion might leave behind some files and settings that ought to be removed. You can use anti-malware apps to find them, but you might also want to take a look yourself:

• open Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder,
• type the name of the folder into the field: ~/Library/LaunchAgents, ~/Library/Application Support, /Library/Application Support, /Library/LaunchDaemons, etc.

You can click on suspicious files and see a preview of them. If the preview shows suspicious site addresses, like Safe Finder, Search Baron, and similar, you can be sure that the file can be deleted. If a file has a recent date added – if it showed up at the same time as Consumer Opinion – then you might also want to delete it. If you accidentally delete a file that belongs to a legitimate app, then you might lose some settings and preferences, but it won’t break your Mac. Besides, you can always bring files back from Trash.

Restore Mac settings

As good as anti-malware apps are, you still need to review your Mac’s settings in System Preferences. Open System Preferences (check the menu up in the top left corner, find it with Spotlight, or click its icon in the Dock):

• Click Profiles. Select and remove (press the minus ‘-‘ button at the bottom) configuration profiles that you didn’t add yourself. It might be all of them – don’t worry, lots of Mac users don’t have any profiles on their Macs.
• Back in System Preferences, press the Network icon. Go to Advanced -> Proxies and deselect all proxies that you did not add. Just like with profiles, you don’t have to use a proxy.
• Finally, go to Users & Groups -> Login Items. Remove the files and apps that you didn’t add.

Consumer Opinion and other malicious apps use their own configuration profiles to enforce various settings on your Mac. They might also set up a proxy to force your Mac to only connect to the internet via a server controlled by the people responsible for the Consumer Opinion malware.

Get rid of these settings and of the Consumer Opinion files to stop this malicious app from influencing your Mac. If the files or settings return, you might have failed to remove all the parts of the malware. As a last resort, you can reinstall macOS and keep your files.

How Consumer Opinion works

How Consumer Opinion affects Macs

Consumer Opinion is a malicious app that might be related to AdLoad, Shlayer, Pirrit, and other adware families. It’s an adware infection – its main goal is to show people ads, force Mac users to visit certain websites, and to collect data about their browsing habits. Indeed, Consumer Opinion could also be considered spyware.

People’s experiences with these adware viruses vary, but they usually include search hijacking. Your browsers, including Safari and Chrome, might open unexpected websites, like Search Marquis, Safe Finder, Yahoo, and others.

Other, less common effects include random and strange pop-ups, crashing apps, apps opening on their own, and new apps being installed without your permission.

How adware is installed

Like other adware viruses, Consumer Opinion spreads with fake ads. These ads trick people to download software updates and trusted apps – malicious actors use the images of known apps in order to trick people to download and install malware hidden inside these fake updates.

However it got on your Mac, it probably was without your permission. It’s advisable to protect your Mac with anti-malware apps and make sure that you take advantage of your Mac’s security features, such as Gatekeeper.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove malware from browsers

How to remove Consumer Opinion Adware from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall Consumer Opinion Adware and other suspicious extensions.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences and choose General tab. Enter preferable URL to the homepage field.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings(older versions) If you are still experiencing any issues related to Consumer Opinion Adware, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari…
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopHow to remove Consumer Opinion Adware from Google Chrome on Mac:

• Open Chrome browser.
• Enter in the url field “chrome://extensions” address and hit Enter.
• Find Consumer Opinion Adware on the extensions list and click on the recycle bin icon next to it.
• Click on 'Chrome' button at the top left corner. Select 'Preferences' on a drop-down menu box.
• Find 'Search' options on Settings tab. If your search engine is changed, click 'Manage Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• On the same page find 'Show home button' checkbox and change your homepage.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Consumer Opinion Adware, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• On the 'Preferences' menu window, scroll down to the bottom and find 'Reset settings' button. Click it.
• Confirm your selection and click 'Reset' on the following window.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program. Top

How To remove Consumer Opinion Adware from Firefox on Mac OS:

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press cmd+Shift+A on your keyboard).
• Go through Extensions list, remove everything Consumer Opinion Adware related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
• Enter “about:preferences” in URL bar and hit enter.
• Open Search settings tab.
• If your search engine is changed, click 'Default Search Engines' and set your preferred search engine.
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Preferences-> General. Enter a preferable URL to the home page field.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Consumer Opinion Adware, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button.
• Click on the Refresh Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.