Beware of the UpSearches Browser Hijacker

UpSearches is the name of a browser hijacker that may have found its way inside your favorite browser without your knowledge.

Browser hijackers are categorized as potentially unwanted programs as they make changes to your system without disclosing them adequately or asking for permission.

In the case of UpSearches, the browser hijacker promotes a fake search engine with the same name. The browser's home page will be changed to upsearches dot com once the hijacker is installed. Additionally, the default search engine used by the browser will be replaced with upsearches as well.

Those changes take place without any sort of adequate disclosure and this alone is enough to make them undesirable. Additionally, as upsearches dot com is not a real search engine, it simply provided Yahoo search results.

Another potential issue is that browser hijackers can record and store your search queries and gather information on your browsing habits. This sort of information is valuable to advertisers and may be re-sold to similar entities.

The summary of all the above makes the presence of any browser hijacker on your system unwanted.