Do you know what Spirals New Tab is?
Spirals New Tab may look like fun and handy application for some of you, but our computer security specialists think entirely different. According to them, the extension should be classified as a potentially unwanted program. Apparently, the reason it falls under such classification is that the tool could be distributed through unreliable channels, most of the information about it is now missing, and there is a chance in the future it might show users modified search results. If you wish to learn more why we question this extension’s reliability, we invite you to read the rest of this article. Once you get to know Spirals New Tab better, you may decide it is not worthy of your trust and if you do we would like to offer our removal guide you could find at the end of the main text.
At some point, Spirals New Tab could have been downloaded from Chrome Web Store page (chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spirals-new-tab/ikaooahnheaoeceaipjcmnamnoleeblk?hl=en-US). Unfortunately, it looks like recently it was removed from this page and so it is no longer accessible through it. Nonetheless, our researchers say there might be other places where the potentially unwanted program might still be spread. For example, it may travel with bundled software installers in which case users could encounter it while visiting various file-sharing networks.
Also, the extension seems to have an official website called spiralstab.com. Since at the moment of writing it loads only a blank page we can only guess the site was supposed to be one other place where users could download it. The worst part is with Spirals New Tab’s site showing nothing we cannot access the application’s Privacy Policy and End User License Agreement documents. You may know that such papers are extremely important because they explain what kind of information the software might gather, where it might use or with who it could be shared, whether the tool can update itself without your permission, show advertising content, and so on.
Spirals New Tab screenshot
Scroll down for full removal instructions
Furthermore, as we said earlier one of the main concerns is that Spirals New Tab might provide an unreliable search engine. As you see, it uses a custom Google search engine to gather the main results and so there is still a possibility the application may have the ability to modify the collected results by injecting third-party advertising to it. So far our researchers did not notice such behavior, but from our experience with other similar potentially unwanted programs, we can say there is a possibility it should start modifying results later on. In which case, some of them could be untrustworthy as they may originate from various third-party web pages. For instance, the third-party ads might promote adware, browser hijackers, other potentially unwanted programs, and so on.
In conclusion, given some vital information about the extension is missing and there is a chance it could start displaying unreliable content, it does not seem like it would wise or safe to use it. No doubt, there are other web pages or search engines you could place as your homepage, so if you are not too attached to Spirals New Tab yet, we advise you to be cautious and erase it. The removal guide you can see below the article will show how to complete this task manually, but if you would rather employ a reputable antimalware tool, we encourage you to pick one and perform a full system scan instead.
Eliminate Spirals New Tab
- Press ALT+F.
- Select Settings.
- Click More tools.
- Select Extensions.
- Look for Spirals New Tab.
- Click the trash bin button near it.
- Press Remove.
In non-techie terms:
Spirals New Tab might not seem like a potential threat, but the research shows otherwise. It would seem the application could travel bundled with other similarly untrustworthy programs. Not to mention given some time it may start injecting additional advertising content from its third-party partners into the gathered search results. Thus, if you surf the Internet with the extension’s provided search engine, we would advise you to be always on guard just in case. On the other hand, it might be easier to simply replace it with a more reliable application. If you decide to do so we can guide you through the extension’s manual deletion process; all you have to do is just follow the steps provided above. The other way to get rid of it is to perform a system scan with a reputable antimalware tool of your preference.