Search.pollicare.com Removal Guide

Search.pollicare.com might look like an average search engine, but there is more to it than meets the eye. If you have noticed that this particular search engine was replaced your homepage and search engine, then we want to inform you that your computer has been infected with a browser hijacker. This particular hijacker is unique in that it only hijacks browsers on Mac OS computers, so Windows users cannot get it. You might want to remove this particular hijacker not only because it was set to replace your browser’s homepage address without your knowledge or permission, but also because its search results can feature questionable and potentially malicious ads and promoted links that can put your computer’s security at risk.

This hijacker was set to be distributed using clandestine methods and configured to replace your browser’s homepage address and search engine. It does that to make you use Search.pollicare.com for searching the web, and you can use it as a regular search engine if you really want to. However, there is an inherent problem with this search engine apart from it being a search engine. We have found that it redirects the entered search queries to Search.Yahoo.com, so it uses a third-party search engine to present you with search results. On top of that, the results can include some shady links that might redirect you to phishing and scam sites, among other dangerous websites.

While gathering information on this hijacker, we learned that it was also configured to collect some anonymous technical and usage information. The collected information is most likely used to personalize the ad campaign for each unique user in an effort to generate as much ad revenue as possible which is generated by clicking the promoted content. Therefore, this hijacker’s developers have an incentive to present you with the most relevant and interesting advertisements as possible. The collected information can include your Internet Protocol (IP) address, Internet Service Provider domain name, approximate location, browser type and version, operating system type and version, search terms entered, search history and so on. This information is anonymous and is collected legally using browser cookies, web beacons, pixels, and other information collection technologies.

Since Search.pollicare.com was designed to hijacker browsers on Apple computers, it is evident that there are websites that specialize in bundling software for Apple computers with questionable applications and search engines to make more money. The bundled software installers can distribute a browser extension designed to inject Search.pollicare.com into your browser upon installation. However, there is no concrete evidence to support this theory it is it is likely that this can be the case.

All in all, it is evident that Search.pollicare.com is one shady search engine whose objective is to generate ad revenue for its creators than to provide Internet users with a reliable and safe search engine. Therefore, we recommend that you remove Search.pollicare.com from your browser as soon as you can. See the guide below that will help you change your browser’s homepage and search engine.

Get rid of this browser hijacker from your Apple computer

Apple Safari

1. Open Safari.
2. Select Safari and click Preferences.
3. Select the General tab.
4. Erase http://search.pollicare.com/ from the Homepage field.
5. Enter a new homepage address.
6. Select the Search tab.
7. Click the dropdown menu and select your preferred search engine.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Firefox.
2. Click Open Menu button.
3. Select Preferences.
4. Erase search.pollicare.com
5. Enter a new homepage address.

Google Chrome

1. Open Chrome.
2. Click the Chrome menu button.
3. Select Settings.
4. In the On Startup, click Set pages.
5. Erase search.pollicare.com
6. Enter a new homepage address.
7. In the Settings menu, select Search.
8. Click Manage search engines…
9. Click X next to search.pollicare.com
10. Select your preferred search engine and click Make default.