Trustnav SafeSearch is a browser extension developed by Media Center Headquarters 3PL. This popular browser enhancer seems like a perfect tool that contains all the necessary features for your online safety and blocks all the annoying ads that are bothering you during video streams or simply when visiting favorite sites. However, there is a dark side to Trustnav SafeSearch add-on, which you won’t see at first, but will realize when computer performance will change drastically and browsing will not be as efficient and pleasant as before. And that is because Trustnav SafeSearch is actually a browser hijacker.
Trustnav Safesearch Hijacker quicklinks
- What does Trustnav Safesearch hijacker do
- How is Trustnav SafeSearch browser hijacker distributed
- How to get rid of the Trustnav SafeSearch virus quickly
- Automatic Malware removal tools
- How to uninstall Trustnav Safesearch hijacker
- How to remove SafeSearch using Windows Control Panel
- How to remove Get.trustnav.com from macOS
(Win)
Note: Spyhunter trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions,
(Mac)
Note: Combo Cleaner trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions, Refund Policy ,
Although Trustnav.com is an official self-advertising website, it has insanely high rankings and popularity (20.8 million users per month according to the SimilarWeb.com) allowing the developers to spread easily and make money off of users worldwide (but mostly Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Columbia). No matter that Safe Search extension is supposed to protect you from all the dangers online, it will do the opposite and cause much more problems is you will decide to use it. That is why without further ado, let’s get to the information that you need to know about Trustnav SafeSearch virus and how to remove it.
What does Trustnav Safesearch hijacker do
The easiest way to explain how Trustnav SafeSearch virus works is to give the examples of other browser viruses that you may have heard of before: FreeShoppingTool, Dailyfileconverter.co, MySearchPlus.co. Browser hijackers like the latter and Trustnav as well, sneak into the system unnoticed or get installed voluntarily by the user as a Chrome, Mozilla, Edge extension and then connect to developers’ servers to start secretly downloading malicious Javascripts like trendtext.eu and etc. which allow them to track users’ behavior, make changes in content and websites that victims see and to alter default settings for more privileges.
Developers of Trustnav hijacker Media Center Headquarters 3PL are located in Andorra but are well spread all around the globe, having over 2.5 million downloads. Even though the rating of this extension is pretty good, yet that does not mean that Trustnav SafeSearch is safe to use. SafeSearch gets paid from various sponsors for redirecting users to their sites for more Traffic, pushing ads to buy products and order services and for allowing to display direct ads to victims. Displays deals come mainly from AdBooth, PopAds, Google Display Network, AdSupply, AdRight ad networks. The more Trustnav SafeSearch virus is popular the more affiliate companies will want to collaborate and pay for the promotion. As long as someone is paying Trustnav browser hijacker developers, they are willing to continue infecting people.
The most notorious part is that all this Affiliate marketing is really dangerous enabling Malvertising and lies on simple users, that on the contrary were looking how to avoid such situation. Moreover, Trustnav SafeSearch virus has a right to track your online data, including websites you visit, keywords you enter, emails you use, your credentials, location, system info and etc. But since this application states in their EULA they are not responsible for any data misuse and etc, and by using it you automatically agree with their policies, that will not allow you to take any legal action if they will misuse your info. Take a brief look at them:
We need to collect data to improve our products and promoting the communication between us. We don’t collect private data if it’s not essential to provide improved service to you. Collecting data is completely anonymized, and deleted when is no longer needed. We inform you about the specific data, the scope and the purpose of the collection by using our product. Please note that we use personal data in accordance with Andorra data protection laws.
Our main purpose is to protect personal data collected from Trustnav. This means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable natural persone is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular, by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person. In short, data subject, like names, email adresses, but also nicknames or alias.
All requests to Trustnav are holded in the website logs. Data store includes your IP address, the time which the request was made, the web address accessed, the browser identifier and the referring page. Trustnav stores some data in the browser profiles on your computer. However, filter hit statistics and recent issue reports could be used to reconstruct your browsing history. Trustnav treats this information identically to how history data is treated by the browser; this data isn’t stored if you are using private browsing mode and is removed if you choose to clear your browsing history.
Obviously, Trustnav SafeSearch virus is only going to cause much more problems that help you be safer online. For this reason, you need to consider removing this extension permanently from your browser and computer and to look for better security options.
How is Trustnav SafeSearch browser hijacker distributed
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, Trustnav.com and it’s domains like Get.trustnav.com, Safesearch.trustnav.com, Search.trustnav.com have a really big traffic (almost 3 million visits per month) and clearly, this is quite shady for a website that does not have any content except for the extension download link. This, of course, allowed developers to spread their Trustnav SafeSearch hijacker to millions of users, yet these downloads did not come in always legitimate ways. It is noticed that there is a lot of traffic coming to get.trustnav.com from go.traqueto.com, pelisplus.tv, series.fbseries.co, filmesonlineseries.net, rojadirectatv.tv and planetatvonlinehd.com. This being said, be careful when surfing on these sites and ideally have your Pop-up blocking feature on, so you would not get rerouted to Trustnav.com.
Another method of distribution that is used by Trustnav SafeSearch virus is the broadly discussed and Controversial – software bundling. Malicious programs get paired with popular software SetUp Wizards by freeware distributing sites and vendors, that anyone who decides to get some tool from an unofficial site or torrent will end up with many additional sponsored programs. Trustnav extension must be deselected during the Custom installation mode, as a program which you not need, or else the Standart/Recommended installation will bring this virus to you without additional permission. As you can see Trustnav SafeSearch hijacker infection could be prevented in most cases if only you’d follow proper Online safety guidelines.
How to get rid of the Trustnav SafeSearch virus quickly
Getting rid of Trustnav SafeSearch virus should not be a difficult task. Simple removal from your browser or Control Panel is supposed to be sufficient to be able to change your search engine back to normal and to stop seeing excessive ads. Yet, it does not always work depending on how vulnerable is your computer and how persistent is your Trustnav SafeSearch hijacker variant.
If you tried everything manually and nothing helps, then you will definitely want to download Malwarebytes or SpyHunter. These programs are the sophisticated malware removal tools that were developed to take care of such infections like Trustnav virus in a matter of seconds. Anti-spyware programs can get rid of threats like ransomware, therefore SafeSearch.trustnav.com will be a fairly easy task. Just run a scan and wait for tools to deliver the results about hunted malware and termination protocol. You also want to change your default browser back to normal and if DNS or Hosts files were not altered by the Get.trustnav.com virus.
Automatic Malware removal tools
(Win)
Note: Spyhunter trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions,
(Mac)
Note: Combo Cleaner trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions, Refund Policy ,
How to uninstall Trustnav Safesearch hijacker
How to remove SafeSearch using Windows Control Panel
Many hijackers and adware like Trustnav 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 Get.trustnav.com . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Safesearch.trustnav.com 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 Get.trustnav.com from macOS
Delete Safesearch.trustnav.com from your applications.- Open Finder.
- In the menu bar, click Go.
- Select Applications from the dropdown.
- Find the Search.trustnav.com app.
- Select it and right-click it (or hold the Ctrl and click the left mouse button).
- In the dropdown, click Move to Bin/Trash. You might be asked to provide your login password.
TopHow To remove Trustnav SafeSearch hijacker 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 Trustnav, 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 Trustnav SafeSearch hijacker 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 Trustnav SafeSearch 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.
- 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.
- 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.
How to remove Trustnav SafeSearch hijacker 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 Trustnav, 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 Trustnav SafeSearch hijacker 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.trustnav.com 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.
- 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.
Below you will find 2-viruses.com instructions on how to remove Trustnav hijacker manually from every browser. In order to achieve the best results terminating SafeSearch extension, you should combine both manual and automatic removal techniques, so that you would know for sure that your system is clean and safe to use. Additionally, check this Lifewire.com article on How to prevent browser hijacking.