Torch Browser is a custom web browser based on Google Chrome, provided by Torch Media, that claims to improve the browsing experience of users, by integrating its own media player, media grabber, torrent engine, gaming platform and some other plugins. However, some security experts believe that this browser might be a potentially unwanted program or a PUP and may collect and share some user information possibly for income-generating purposes. Our research team has looked into the browser to see what it does if installed.
Torch Browser – How Does It Work?
Torch Browser can be either downloaded from its website (www.torchbrowser.com) or while installing other third-party software. The site has a good design and appears legitimate. However, there were certain issues that we found with this software.
Firstly, what grabbed our attention were some of the claims in the Privacy Policy of the website, mainly regarding information disclosure and sharing:
As visible above, some of the statements contradict each other, more precisely, the statements regarding third parties possibly collecting information via cookies or other methods. At the first paragraph, it Is stated that the company could use third parties and individuals, and they may collect information to improve the service. And at the second paragraph, they have stated that they do not share information with third party sites, but despite that, these sites may collect information. Also, it is unspecified what type of information may be obtained (non-personal or personal).
Another interesting detail in the privacy policy was that they state that the user agrees to have his information transferred to countries with less impacting laws, concerning personal information, which appears to be normal. However, the company does not specify to whom the personal information may or may not be transferred.
We have attempted to download and install Torch Browser on a machine. The first thing we noticed is that the installer prompted us to change homepages of two other browsers to ask.com. It also requested to install ‘Torch Movies Search App’ extension as a bundle add-on to all of our web browsers.
After many permission requests during installation, we have managed to set up Torch Browser on our PC. What we noticed initially was that when we ran it for the first time, it situated four other icons on the desktop, linking to own web site pages and their services.
When we opened the browser, we observed that it was based on Google Chrome with the difference that its search engine, powered by ask.com was full of third party advertisements that may redirect to other websites. Also, there were some other suspicious symptoms such as the task manager processes. When we compared Torch Browser processes against Google Chrome (on which it is based on), we have found that the number of executable files was unusually high (and we didn’t open more than one tab on each).
However, the most prominent symptom to make us believe that the software from Torch Media was unwanted on our computer is when we performed our final scan. It showed around 590 unwanted objects, connected with the bundled ‘Movies Search App’ we wrote about earlier, added to the other browsers.
How To Remove Torch Browser?
If you feel unsafe when using this browser and you need to remove it, you should guide yourself by the after mentioned step-by-step tutorial to completely eradicate all files. It is also highly recommended (if you are not a professional in cyber security) to install special software that will detect such threats and protect you regularly from them.
Spy Hunter scanner will only detect the threat. If you want the threat to be automatically removed, you need to purchase the full version of the anti-malware tool.Find Out More About SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool / How to Uninstall SpyHunter
Remove a toolbar from Mozilla Firefox
Remove a toolbar from Google Chrome
Remove a toolbar from Internet Explorer
Remove a toolbar from Safari
Salve, ho installato torch perche mi sembrava interessante ma dopo aver letto questo articolo ho trovato due discordanze…
la prima e che il browser usa torch(.)start.me e non Ask(.)com, la seconda e che le 4 icone sul desktop che avete riscontrato ( Free Music, Free Games etc) non si sono installate sul mio pc…non so forse a distanza di due anni Torch ha e diventato piu sicuro…aspetto un vostro riesame prima di cancellarlo.
Hello Davon,
Don’t forget that browsers such as Torch tend to change their homepages in time. Those were the ones in use when we did the research.