Are these being used as spyware? (Macbook full disk access)

ninjaphrodite wrote:

I don't recognize Paragon, Oracle, or XProtect. If someone else installed them, they can access all my files or see my screen, right?

I deleted and ran Clean My Mac, but how can I be sure it's completely gone, there's no other similar programs, and do the same for my phone? Software installation says XProtector's been there for a couple years, but I don't see any mention of the other 2. Can I find more info about how long they've been there somewhere else?

https://imgur.com/a/LaB2Ug6

XProtect is your Apple's Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware...

Paragon is r/w for NTFS formatted drives

Oracle on a Mac refers to the Oracle database software

< ran Clean My Mac> brick my mac... oh boy

Recommended to —Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

Third party AntiVirus is not recommended— it typically does nothing but add issues to the macOS and competes directly with Apple’s own built in security:

macOS antivirus - Protecting against malware in macOS - Apple Support

macOS - Security - Apple macOS - Security - Apple

Apple Platform Security - Apple Apple Platform Security - Apple Support

(Apple uses its Software Update service (which also drives the system software updates that show in the App Store) as a mechanism for installing “background and critical” updates that are installed silently in the background with no notifications to the user.)

in this case, that oracle reference is to oracle Java. in any case Oracle software is NOT likely to be malware, it is likely to be doing very important things for you.

there are other things showing that are FAR more alarming:

uTorrent is a 'deal with the devil'. In exchange for getting pieces of paid commercial software for free from others, you agree to allow your software to be pirated to others at the same time.

You do NOT need a VPN you installed yourself. PureVPN is one of many many add-on VPNs that are a low-level scam.

Dropbox MIGHT be something you wanted, but it is ported from that other Operating System, and does not use MacOS system calls that could allow it to run quickly with minimal impact on performance. It's use punishes performance of your Mac in many ways. iCloud is superior.

The one item you mention that is the biggest issue on your computer is Clean My Mac. Third party apps that claim to protect, clean, manage, etc. use system resources while providing no benefit. And such apps may cause problems.