ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker - How to remove

ShoppingDealsLive is a browser extension that is supposed to help users find shopping deals, coupons, discounts, other sale-related help. It might sound practical and useful, but the truth is, ShoppingDealsLive is a front for a hijacker that seeks to take over your search engine. This is why, after installing ShoppingDealsLive, you find your search queries being directed to MyWay or another new search engine. The extension is incredibly bare, without much of what could be called “features”. But it has this in common with other hijackers: taking over your search engine and tracking your browser activity for profit.

ShoppingDealsLive was developed by Mindspark, a company that’s already responsible for dozens or even hundreds of hijackers, for example, FindMeFreebies, FreePDFCombiner, DirectionsOnline. These extensions look and function almost the same as ShoppingDealsLive. They all have the same new tab page layout with the search bar in the middle and a few links to other supposedly helpful sites in the toolbar. ShoppingDealsLive, for example, is about finding shopping deals, so it has links to sites that offer to help you find shopping deals. Why use the add-on instead of just bookmarking those sites? I don’t know. But for Mindspark, more users for their extensions means more people using their search engine and more people to advertise to.

Is ShoppingDealsLive dangerous?

Yes, at least, A few antivirus programs think so. They label ShoppingDealsLive as:

• PUP (potentially unwanted program)
• Malware
• Adware
• Toolbar
• Mindspark

Even though it’s understood that a browser extension like ShoppingDealsLive is not a virus, it is also widely agreed that these add-ons are unwanted, useless, and could even decrease your cybersecurity overall.

ShoppingDealsLive takes away your old search website, whether you were using Bing, DuckDuckGo, or Google. The hijacker demands that you use MyWay with no consideration for your previous settings. If you installed ShoppingDealsLive on Chrome, you probably were also railroaded into installing Search Extension by Ask, which is worse about privacy than ShoppingDealsLive (based on their permissions) and sets your default search engine to Ask (Ask owns Mindspark).

About privacy, hijacking your web search process allows ShoppingDealsLive to see what you search for and what you click on, on top of it being able to see your browsing history. This data, which can be valuable to advertisers, is listed in Ask’s privacy policy:

• Information about your hardware and software such as your IP address, your browser type and  language and other browser-related information and a time-stamp
• Information about how you use the Search Applications such as the keyword query, search query text, search results clicked, pages viewed and search history.
• The content of any of our undeleted cookies, including a unique identifier (see section D “Cookies” below), software installed upon and/or devices connected to your computer and/or device, and the referring website address.

They also say that this data is used to improve behavioral advertising all over the web. Your unique ID (which is not associated with your real identity) allows advertisers to know your interests and your habits.

We or these third parties may collect the following information (and similar information):

• Demographic data collected on Ask Apps Services (e.g., age, zip or postal code, gender) and geographic location derived from your IP address on your visits to the Ask Apps Services and non-affiliated websites and applications;
• Data about your use of or visits to the Ask Apps Services and non-affiliated websites and applications;
• Data on your interaction with the advertisement displayed on third party websites and applications; and
• Interest and usage data (such as the pages you view and links you click on) acquired from other companies.
• We may disclose any or all of the collected information to third parties.

While this is mostly normal for a free commercial product, what is strange is creating a browser extension for the whole purpose of changing the default search engine. Some people don’t immediately realize the causation between installing ShoppingDealsLive and their search site changing, so if they like ShoppingDealsLive, they won’t think to uninstall it, even if they still want to restore their previous search. Unfortunately, there’s no way around that. ShoppingDealsLive and MyWay are a package deal.

How do hijackers get installed?

ShoppingDealsLive is an ordinary browser hijacker and there is nothing exceptional about its distribution: malicious ads, redirects, and adware.

If you’re infected with adware, there must be some symptoms that you’ve already experienced: excessive pop-ups, redirects, random new tabs opening in your browser. Some adware is capable of hijacking your browser and injecting ads into the content that you see. As for the ads, they’re by advertisers of the types of products that normal advertising networks are careful of: health products, gambling, malware, scams, other adware. This includes browser hijackers like ShoppingDealsLive.

Malvertising also can be used to promote ShoppingDealsLive but does not require your computer to be infected with adware. Deceptive ads can be found almost anywhere on the web but are most ubiquitous on websites that are not 100% legal: video converting sites, free streaming sites, filesharing websites. They’re delivered by adware sites like install.notify-service.com and that’s how most people will probably see the ShoppingDealsLive installation page. There are legitimate ads promoting ShoppingDealsLive, too, and they’re shown by legitimate and reputable websites.

How to remove ShoppingDealsLive

Earlier I mentioned adware viruses as possible culprits for ShoppingDealsLive being installed. If you’re experiencing some symptoms that I mentioned, it’s a good idea to scan your computer with Spyhunter, or another antivirus tool that you trust. PUPs and malware spread in groups and bundles so it would not be strange if there was more than one suspicious program on a computer. People who don’t update their software, who frequent websites that don’t take their visitors’ security seriously, and who often download free programs from software downloading websites are likely to be infected with some sort of unwanted software sooner or later, so a powerful and up-to-date antivirus and exploit-free operating system and browser are important to being as secure as possible.

The removal of a malicious extension isn’t always easy, but ShoppingDealsLive isn’t so bad in this and provides its own button for that. But it’s a good idea to review your other installed extensions and decide which ones might not be needed. Powerful extensions (ones with a lot of permissions) can be used for malicious purposes and shouldn’t be installed unless you know you can trust their developers.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker install some of their components as regular Windows programs as well as additional software. This part of malware can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. To access it, do the following.

• Start→Control Panel (older Windows) or press Windows Key→Search and enter Control Panel and then press Enter (Windows 8, Windows 10).
• Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category).
• Go through the list of programs and select entries related to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker easier to find.
• Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes.
• In many cases anti-malware programs are better at detecting related parasites, thus I recommend installing Spyhunter to identify other programs that might be a part of this infection.

How to remove ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker from macOS

Delete ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker app.
5. Select it and right-click it (or hold the Ctrl and click the left mouse button).
6. In the dropdown, click Move to Bin/Trash. You might be asked to provide your login password.

TopRemove malicious extensions from Internet Explorer

• Press on the Gear icon→Manage Add-ons.
  
• Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
  
• Close the Options.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Press on the Gear icon->Internet Options.
  
• Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset button.
  
• Select a “Delete personal settings” checkbox and click on the Reset button.
  
• Click on the Close button on the confirmation box, then close your browser.
  

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

TopRemoving ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker. Click on the trash bin icon next to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
  
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

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

TopRemoving ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker from Firefox

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker 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.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker, 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 Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

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

How to remove ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker. Click on the "Remove" icon next to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker or other add-ons you want to remove.

• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.

• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.

• Restart Microsoft Edge.

TopRemoving ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker. Remove all other unknown or suspicious entries too. If you are not sure whether you need the extension or not, you can simply uncheck the Enable check-box to disable the extension temporarily.
  
• Restart Safari.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to ShoppingDealsLive Hijacker, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the 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.