Search-privacy.net Virus - How to remove

SearchPrivacy is an application designed and created by FirstGate Mobile Limited, located at Hong Kong, China. It is another title of the Search-privacy.net browser hijacker, which is displayed under the search-privacy.net/search/ domain. This malicious extension is compatible with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Soon, its version for Internet Explorer is said to be launched, at least it is declared so on the hijacker’s official distribution website, which is search-privacy.net. Later the distributing website got renamed to privacy-search.company. The searches are displayed using searchprivacy.co search engine.

How does Search-privacy.net Browser Hijacker Differ from Legitimate Search Engines?

Search-privacy.net extension is promoted as a privacy-wise search tool. However, its affiliation with the secretive (undisclosed) parties are rather questionable. On the one hand, if you reviewed the Terms of Service of Search-privacy.net add-on, you will notice a lot of assertions that the plug-in was created with the aim of providing its users with more privacy when searching the web. On the other hand, there are quite alarming statements found in the Terms and Conditions of Search-privacy.net module. Read the following paragraph:

Our Service may contain links to third-party web sites or services that are not owned or controlled by searchprivacy.
searchprivacy has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party web sites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that searchprivacy shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such web sites or services.

As you can see from the above excerpt of the Policy, the developers of Search-privacy.net program have little or no interest in the commercial activities carried out by their partners. They, in fact, warn you about possible dangers, if you interact with this 3rd party content. How can you trust such a search provider?

Moreover, proceeding with the investigation of the Search-privacy.net’s supplemental documentation, in the Privacy Policy you can even find such grammar mistakes as the one in the following example:

We strives to deliver a complete private search experience […]

Moving on, in the Privacy Policy of Search-privacy.net app it is again emphasized that this application may display you 3rd party content, which can potentially be harmful:

[…] we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

We think it is about time we introduced you with the methods of Search-privacy.net browser hijacker removal.

Get to Know How Search-privacy.net Browser Hijacker Infects Your PC and How to Remove It

Search-privacy.net hijacker can be installed from the official website, which is displayed under the Url of search-privacy.net. Know that every free download hides PUPs – potentially unwanted programs – which must be removed before the installation of the particular free program, as they will definitely get set up along with it. This can only be done in the Advanced or Custom options. So, please, the next time you download some free app from the Internet – opt for the latter settings. Search-privacy.net PUP can also start running on your computer after you have clicked some suspicious ad, link, etc.

 

Spyhunter can remove Search-privacy.net hijacker without much time and effort. Choose one of these anti-malware apps to protect your PC. The guide for the manual removal of this hijacking malware comes next.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal of Search-privacy.net Virus

How to remove Search-privacy.com Virus using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Search-privacy.net Virus 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 Search-privacy.com Virus . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Search-privacy.net Virus 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 Search-privacy.com Virus from macOS

Delete Search-privacy.net Virus from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Search-privacy.com Virus 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.

TopHow To remove Search-privacy.net Virus from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Search-privacy.net Virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser 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.

How To remove Search-privacy.net Virus from Firefox:Top

• 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 Search-privacy.net Virus 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.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Options → General. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Restore to Default.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Search-privacy.com Virus, 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.
  
• ChooseTroubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on theReset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset 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.

How to remove Search-privacy.net Virus from Microsoft Edge:Top

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

• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings

• Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.

• Choose Manage search engines.

• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.

• Go back to Settings. Open On start-up.
• Delete malicious search websites at Open specific page or pages by opening the three-dot menu and clicking Delete.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Search-privacy.net Virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings

• Click on Edge's menu button and select Settings. Click on the Reset Settings button on the left.
• Press the Restore settings to their default values option.

• 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.

How to remove Search-privacy.net Virus from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall Search-privacy.com Virus 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 Search-privacy.net Virus, 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.