Google LLC Running in Background on Mac

Yeah, it just sneaked itself in as a LaunchDaemon and LaunchAgent here also and allowed itself running in the background, without my specific consent!

I only noticed it recently when I was researching why my MBP was continuously waking from sleep.

I just removed Google Drive and suggest you do it also, if you installed it :) If you want to use it, just visit the website.

The moment you installed any Google software, you HAD to provide your passport, hence you provided them the permission. Another question is, of course, why macOS allowed the software to automatically add itself to the background allowance list without your specific consent? Every single software I use which requires background activity asks me for permission BEFORE the fact!

Uninstall all their software AND remove every single file and folder with the name Google in it from these folders:

Application Support (both system and user)

Library (both system and user)

LaunchAgents

LaunchDaemons

This Chrome trash thing is super annoying, to keep spamming even after disabled in Notifications and Login Items.

I suspect that GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app that running invokes it, so I killed it, no messages so far

to check if any similar processess are running:

ps aux | grep -i google 

to kill it:

pkill GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent # not sure it will work, I killed it using Process ID

or

kill -9 `ps aux | grep -i google | awk '{ print $2 }'`

or

pkill <PID>

I hope that disabled 'Google Update' in Login Items would prevent it from starting again on next boot, but Im not sure and likely Chrome will start it anyway at some point (I'm not even using Chrome everyday, I just use it occasionally to test something)

To be fair, I noticed a notification banner about this item being added after Chrome updated. It could be easy to miss, though it did appear even despite the DnD mode.

I believe Google would prefer the browser to constantly auto-update for many reasons, including good (0day fixes) and probably not-so-good reasons (various new tracking tech and whatnot, I imagine). It’s understandable that many power users would dislike this, of course…

I just want to know if this is allowing Google to track me in ways I may not want or doing something else vaguely nefarious.

I have the option of turning it off in "Login Items" but I don't know if that will affect the functionality of Chrome - unfortunately, I have to have Chrome for one particular application that won't work on Firefox or Safari, but I won't use it for anything else.

I have never "installed Google," nor would I, and still have had this added.

This is getting even more interesting :)

So you are saying you have no Google software whatsoever installed on your Mac, and this login item was still added???

If this is the case, then this implies this was actually added by Apple, which would be outrageous!

Quid pro quo.

Of course, there has always been some level of cooperation & communication between the two ... consider the development of standards for network communications as an example. But this appears to be a new twist.

anyone have more concrete info on this?

I'm seeing such drastic mixed things from; its just google doing its thing, to its a possible virus. Which is very conflicting and concerning.

Is it important? Can it just be deleted? If so how?

Where even is it installed on mac? the only place I see it is in login items, under, "allow in background."

anyone with concrete info would be much appreciated.

👍

~/Library/LaunchDaemons

~/Library/LaunchAgents

~/[user profile]/Library/LaunchAgents

You probably meant to include

/Library/LaunchDaemons

... since ~/[user profile]/Library/LaunchAgents is not a path that would exist on a Mac.

And this is exactly what I meant by "installing Google" because nothing gets installed in those locations without a user's consent. Conversely stated if a file with "Google" its name exists in any of those locations it's there because the user wanted it. In other words if you don't want Google on your Mac... don't install it.

With this recent change in macOS, Apple is informing its users of something they installed. Why did they wait so long to do that? Good question.

ClarenceBeaks wrote:

• Being a bit pedantic there but for the user profile directory I actually meant: -

/Users/[user profile name]/Library/LaunchAgents

That is correct.

To be completely clear:

~/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchAgents

... are the folders to be examined.

🙂

When I woke my Mac from sleep this morning I received a system notification that a Google LLC background app had been installed. This was new so of course I'm wondering what and why.

what is google LLC

Posting a brand new question is the best way to elicit the individual attention you deserve. To do that, click the Ask the Community link above.

As recommended I've created a new question / topic here:

What is the "Google LLC" login item and what is it doing? It just added itself to my login items.