Home.clearwebsearch.net

Posted by Max Lehmann on July 13, 2016

What is Home.clearwebsearch.net?

If the homepage of your Google Chrome browser was replaced with Home.clearwebsearch.net, it is most likely that you have downloaded the ClearWebSearch extension available at clearwebsearch.net. Have you downloaded this extension from its official website? Maybe you are one of nearly 20,000 users who have been counted on the Chrome web store? Unfortunately, not all users acquire this extension from its original source. In fact, many – if not most – find it in software bundles, where the add-on is packaged with many other programs, some of which might be malicious. Regardless of the source of this suspicious software, we suggest that you delete it from your operating system. If you do not know why you should remove Home.clearwebsearch.net and ClearWebSearch, please continue reading. test test test

How does Home.clearwebsearch.net work?

Did you know that ClearWebSearch can change the data on the sites you visit and silently communicate with other websites? You must be aware of this if you have downloaded this extension from the Chrome web store, where you are routed after clicking the “Get Clear Web Search” button on its official site. Additionally, the installer on this web store informs that Home.clearwebsearch.net is installed along with the extension as well. Those who acquire this extension via unfamiliar installers might be shocked to find their Chrome homepages modified, unless, of course, they are informed about the changes as well. Overall, this search tool modifies your settings, and you do not have the option to refuse it if you want the extension, and this is why we classify it as a browser hijacker. Obviously, if you find it installed without any warning, you should realize that it is an unreliable, removal-deserving hijacker right away. Those who install it willingly might have trouble realizing it is unreliable because, after all, it provides users with an enjoyable search provider.

The home page of Home.clearwebsearch.net represents four different tools. The first one, of course, is a search tool that you supposedly can enter keywords into to find the sites or information you are interested in. The three buttons on the left represent Themes, Time settings, and a list of links to such popular websites as youtube.com, twitter.com, facebook.com, and amazon.com. Although this home page does not show links to legal statements that should support every website, you can find this information on the official download page. According to the Privacy statement found at clearwebsearch.net/privacy/, this software can collect information that can be used to identify you, including your name and email address. The most worrisome part of this statement is that the data collected can be used for marketing purposes, to deliver more attractive ads, and conduct marketing research. This all means that information about you could be used by unknown parties. You probably understand already that this means that your personal data might be at risk. Or researchers at Anti-Spyware-101.com have found that the Privacy Policy is identical to the one representing Hoopla Search, another suspicious piece of software that we advise removing. This further proves that this software can be unreliable.

As mentioned in the Privacy Policy, Home.clearwebsearch.net can be used to deliver ads, and this is done via the search results. Surprisingly, this hijacker first redirects your queries to Yahoo Search via the services.findwide.com/trss/search.php?spid=65&subid=AAJ5D&k=buy server. Even though the search results are shown via the Yahoo search engine, they could be modified by the suspicious hijacker, and this is why interacting with the links shown to you could be dangerous.

How to remove Home.clearwebsearch.net

Although Home.clearwebsearch.net does not look dangerous, trusting it is not what we recommend. On the contrary, we believe it is best to delete this hijacker from your Google Chrome browser. If you think that the elimination of this search provider is complicated, you will be glad to know that it is not. In fact, all you need to do is erase the unwanted ClearWebSearch extension. You can do this in two ways: erase the extension directly from the browser or erase it from your computer. Both of these methods are represented via the instructions below, and we hope that you will be able to erase the unwanted add-on yourself. Now, because this software usually travels in bundles, you might be dealing with other suspicious programs as well. If they dangerous and malicious, you should not waste time with manual removal and, instead, utilize a trusted automated remover.

Removal Option 1

Launch Explorer by tapping keys Win+E.
Enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data into the address bar.
Open the Default/{Profile name} folder.
Move to the Extensions folder.
Right-click and Delete the folder named aajfipfppociplchnohplaiobmmfmeke

N.B. If you operate on Windows XP, the directory you will find the unwanted extension in is %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default/{Profile name}\Extensions.