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

I have never followed a thread with so much misdirection. A response such as "You agreed to the terms when you installed xyz," and "Just remove Google" is flippant. First, because it misses the point; it doesn't answer harenet's question. Second, because there is no such application as "Google" to be removed.

What prompted the question in this forum (and across the web this month) was the sudden appearance of the "Google LLC" alert. Sudden appearance, as in "new behavior". New behaviors like this tend to get our attention.

"Google LLC" appears in

System Settings… > General > Login Items > Allow in the Background

However, in the same list, dozens of other background items by other publishers trigger no such alert. Only Google throws, "Software from Google LLC added items that can run in the background".

Why does Google Drive do this whereas Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive do not?

Why did it start appearing only in recent weeks?

What has changed?

You do not install "Google" on your Mac. At best, you install software from Google, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet. Google LLC is a login item that is confusingly named, which is why people are here.

Specifically, on my system, there are two Login items: "Google Updater" and "Google LLC". It's unclear why there would be two login items that do the same thing. Furthermore, it's not unusual for spyware to make this kind of category error, trying to make it look like something from a well known company, without saying exactly what it's doing. (Although, I wouldn't put this kind of user unfriendly naming scheme past Google.) So, it's a kind of red flag.

IOW, what most people are looking for here is, whether this is a legit login item from Google, why it showed up now, if it can be removed, etc.

Sure, at some point, we gave permission to install it. But it could be due to some kind of social engineering exploit, some kind of exploit, etc. resulting in this login item. Again, "uninstall Google" isn't exactly helpful.

harenet wrote:

the first 3 questions remain unanswered.

And until something changes, they are going to stay that way.

What is Google LLC login item?

We don't know. You are asking this question in probably the one forum in the world where people are least likely to use Google software.

Furthermore, you are asking based off what tiny scraps of information Apple has given you in System Preferences. That interface is total, unmitigated junk. It is completely insufficient for anyone to tell you anything about "Google LLC" other than, at one point, maybe in the past, maybe right now, someone with legal authority at "Google LLC" opened an Apple Developer account in that name and signed an app with it. That's it. That is absolutely all of the information that anyone can ever tell you about "Google LLC".

If you want to know more, you are the one that will need to find the information on your computer. None of us have your computer. Therefore, none of us can make any statements about what software you might have installed.

What is it doing?

Again, we have absolutely no clue. All we have is "Google LLC". That says nothing about what the software does.

Furthermore, even if we did know the exact name of the app and where it is installed, we would still know absolutely nothing about what the software is doing. You would have to ask Google about that and hope they tell you. (Hint: they won't).

How is it functionally different form Google Updater?

Broken record time. Why do you expect any of us to know what some unnamed, unknown, mystery Google app is doing on your computer?

Furthermore, even if we did know that that app is, how would we know whether or not it is functionally different from Google Updater? How do we know what Google Updater actually does? Do we assume from the name that it is simply a software updater. Do we really trust "Google LLC" that much? Maybe it has some additional functionality, like, say, collection personal information?

Arthur7 wrote:

It was explained that there is no "Google" so the solution is to "uninstall Google" is a least unhelpful and is coming across as pretentious. Uninstall "x", "y" and "z" might be a helpful comment or leave it alone.

If you do not know what you installed on your Mac, then follow the instructions I posted for others to determine what you installed.

Excerpted from Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community:

• Never install something without first knowing what it is, what it does, how it works, and how to get rid of it when you don't want it any more.

"Google LLC" will not appear unless you installed a Google product or service on your Mac.

harenet wrote:

I have Chrome installed but barely use it for privacy reasons, however I do want keep it on the machine

Yes that is relevant. If you have Chrome installed, that means you installed Google on your Mac. It is not possible to use one without the other. Whether you actively use their Chrome product or not is irrelevant. Google will remain installed and will remain active until you uninstall it. It also updates itself in the background regularly, which makes it difficult to correlate the onset of poor performance to an overt action a user may have taken. A Mac that is performing perfectly well one day may perform poorly the next. Or, it might just damage its file system and render the Mac unbootable.

The specific answers to your questions can only be determined by asking the developer of those products, but general answers are as follows, in no particular order.

Why is it able to install itself in my log in items without any authentication or opt-in action on my part?

That is not correct. Although you may have done so years ago, you authorized Google to implement those system modifications by installing Google on your Mac. That consent gives it essentially unfettered ability to load, modify, update, and otherwise control how those system modifications operate and what they do. There is nothing new about that.

What is new — and what seems to be confounding unsuspecting users who did not perform their due diligence when installing those products — is macOS is now informing (or reminding) its users of that fact.

Nothing gets installed on a Mac without your consent. Nothing — although nefarious product developers successfully deceive people into doing that with disturbing regularity. Want something "free"? Click here! People do that all the time. Then they come here for help when they realize what they did was a terrible mistake. That's ok, it's what we're here for.

What is Google LLC login item?

Google apps such as Chrome are considered a "modern login item" as opposed to the traditional Login Items that preceded macOS 13. An introduction describing how developers such as Google can implement them is here: Manage login items and background tasks on Mac - Apple Developer.

It's also one reason I do not permit Google (or anything like it) to be installed on any of the Macs I own and / or control. It essentially relinquishes control of your Mac to Google, grants it nearly unlimited ability to harvest, upload, and subsequently sell your personal information and Internet activity — tracking your every move, every web page, every mouse click, every keystroke, building a picture of "you" and retaining it forever, thereby rendering nearly all the privacy advantages of using a Mac moot.

Those processes also burden a Mac for Google's sole benefit. Older and more resource-limited Macs are affected to a greater extent than newer, faster ones. If that means you have to buy a new Mac every few years to keep up with Google's constantly increasing demands, I suppose Apple won't mind. But Apple is sensitive to public perception (justified or not) that something may be happening with their products that may appear to be concealed.

I surmise this is the underlying motivation to provide this new notification that something was installed on that Mac that has the ability to affect its operation, or to circumvent the privacy Apple proclaims as a core aspect of their products and forms a cornerstone of their business model.

What is it doing?

"It" — meaning Google? It's making a lot of money, for Google, from selling you, as a product. Hopefully you already know that. It's common knowledge, it's been litigated, it's the world's worst kept secret, but if you want to learn more about that sorry state of affairs it's best to learn it from sources other than Google. They are very good at what they do.

So good in fact, that people argue in favor of it:

harenet wrote:

but…

* I'm not removing Chrome from my system

There you go 😄

BeccaJC1212 wrote:

If anyone wades to this point who actually does the exact functions of those two items, it'd still be nice to know.

No one (at least no one who knows what they are talking about) is going to make any statement about what some random file on someone else's computer might be. All we know if that it was signed by "Google LLC".

Most likely, these are the same files shown here: Can you help me understand my Etrecheck r… - Apple Community

or here: Etrecheck Report Analysis - Apple Community

or here: My EtreCheck report for my 27"iMac, late … - Apple Community

Is that guaranteed? No. It is not. It could be something completely different.

etresoft wrote:

Alas, the Apple discussion forum rules prevent me (as the author) from giving you a direct link to my app. You can use Google to find it, or someone else can tell you, but I can't.

Fortunately the Apple forum discussion rules do not prevent me from doing that, since I have no affiliation and derive absolutely no benefit from recommending it — and I unequivocally recommend it:

https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

... or these helpful instructions for using it, should you or anyone wish to do that:

How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report - Apple Community

It will clearly identify the presence of the Google product or service, which in turn causes that Apple notification of its presence to appear, which appears to be the underlying reason for such an inexplicable degree of anger and gnashing of teeth.

It's associated with Google Chrome which is very invasive with all of its supporting files it puts in so many places on your drive. There are a lot of similar login items of developer's names instead of the name of the app. It's confused me along with many others in the beginning (when Ventura was released).

It's also a very overactive system resource hog, CPU and memory, and sends back info on where you go and what you look at to its home servers for sale to online vendors. You're have much more privacy with Firefox or Brave as browsers if you don't ike Safari.

+1 for the appropriate use and correct spelling of "free rein" 👍

After so many years Apple decides to actively inform people of the fact they installed Google on their Macs. Yet somehow that's Apple's problem.

Then, as said in the first response, ask the question on a forum run by the makers of the app. The other information is because you mentioned your privacy concerns but did not tell us anything else. People just trying to be helpful.

Scott Ahten wrote:

This seems to be legit. See: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/243035925/what-is-the-google-llc-login-item-on-macos-and-what-is-it-doing?hl=en

It doesn't seem to be legit to me. It looks like ChatGPT output, which is always junk.

Unfortunately, Apple's new user interface in Ventura for displaying the "Login Items" and "background tasks" is also junk. It is normal for people to get confused when they see this kind of meaningless gibberish. I'm a big Apple fan in most respects, but not here. I have some personal theories about why it works the way it does, but those are well into conspiracy theory territory.

Apple sprang this new interface on developers without notice. Well, yes, they did give them a few months notice. But this was a major architectural change for an area where very few developers outside Apple, or even inside Apple, know anything about. This is really, really obscure stuff. Nobody cared because it was all background tasks based on files in hidden directories. That is, until Apple threw in that end-user-facing control interface. What a royal mess!

And because the interface is such a mess to being with, I can't even tell if this is just some old app that Google actually fixed. That's the problem with these kinds of major changes. Google sure didn't know about it when they released that software signed by "Google LLC" however many years ago. (I'm just guessing that it old app. I don't really know and Apple isn't helping any.)

To get back to the original question, "What is the "Google LLC" login item and what is it doing? It just added itself to my login items." Sorry, no clue. You'll have to dig around in those hidden folders ands background tasks to find out.

harenet wrote:

To clarify, I was responding to John Galt, not to your response, so apologies if there was a misunderstanding there.

Yes. I saw that. But that doesn't matter to most people. They usually just randomly click a "Reply" button. Most often, they reply to themselves.

That said, I don't expect anyone to know these answers. I'm just hoping someone with more skill or knowledge than I have will be able to help me and others with the same questions find the answers.

But it's actually quite a difficult question. The basic, most fundamental, answer is that you are simply supposed to trust Google. Apple's signature-based notification system only provides the legal name of the entity that signed the software.

Sometimes people think that Apple has this massive security team that is doing in-depth security checks on all the apps in the world. There is no such team. There is a team that checks the paperwork to ensure that "Google LLC" actually exists in some jurisdiction and isn't a known malware author. That's it. You are expected to do your own research if you have further questions.

If you are downloading apps from the Mac App Store, then there is another level of automated checks to ensure very basic compliance with Apple App Review guidelines. There is also a very basic human runtime check to ensure apps actually work, aren't fake apps for the illegal drug, gambling, prostitution, etc. industries. But when I say "basic check", remember that it's really, really basic. Large companies like Google are typically exempt for all practical purposes anyway.

Funny enough, the inverse isn't true. Google actually does have a large security team doing in-depth security checks on Apple apps. Their job is to hack Apple devices and software and publish the results - all in the name of improved security, of course. Make of that what you will.