Trendio Ads

In this day and age, it is difficult to determine whether an application is any good or not. Trendio Ads might look like a program dedicated to presenting you with the most relevant news from around the world. However, we recommend that you remove this application because in addition to the news you will also receive a fair share of commercial ads that are irritating and invasive. After testing this program, we have classified it as a browser hijacker because it will hijack Google Chrome’s new tab page and replace it with its search engine. If you use its search engine, then you will get subjected to commercial ads that may be included in the search results.

One way of determining whether an application is legitimate is to search for information about its publisher. However, Trendio Ads does not contain any information about it which is a clear indication that there is something wrong with it. Nevertheless, we have discovered that this application was developed by a company called SuperWeb LLC, an adware developer known for hundreds of browser extensions dedicated to generating advertising revenue for their owners. Therefore, it is obvious that Trendio Ads comes from an unreliable company that is in the web monetization business.

Our research has revealed that this application was released on January 18, 2016. So it has been around for some time, yet it has not grown in popularity all that much, and that is the main reason why it managed to stay under the radar for so long. However, its range of distribution is quite wide as it has a dedicated download website at Trendio.net, but we have no information about whether it is being promoted via adware or website-based ads. Furthermore, you can get it on the Chrome Web Store. Google does not regard this application as malicious. In fact, the Chrome Web Store often features questionable applications that modify browser settings in order to make you use its promoted search engine.

We have classified Trendio Ads as a browser hijacker because after you install it on Google Chrome, it will change its new tab page without your knowledge or authorization. This is very dishonest on the part of the developers as they do this for their own selfish interest. While testing this hijacker we have found that it redirects all search queries to Bing.com, which is, undoubtedly, a legitimate search engine. However, Trendio Ads’ privacy policy states that it may show third party content. It goes on to state that “Such Third Party Content also may include advertising, or advertising-supported search results, which will be displayed to you if you use the search box or click on trending terms.” So not only will this hijacker show ads in its search results, but also insert them into the “trending terms” i.e. the news articles presented on the new tab page.

On top of that, this browser hijacker can collect personal and non-personal information about you. Its owners will gather personal information about you if you contact them. As a result, they might get you name, email address, and any other information you provide. This information may be supplemented with non-personally identifiable information. According to the privacy policy,this information includes “IP address, device type, country code, unique identifier number, hardware, software, configuration, operating system information, browser, usage patterns, capability, and performance.” All of this information may be shared with third parties. However, it is usually used for commercial purposes, such as “providing the Extension or Website features; improving or maintaining the Extension and Website; displaying relevant or advertising-supported content to Extension or Website users,” and so on, as stated in the privacy policy. Given that all of this information is used for commercial purposes you might not want to share it. Furthermore, you cannot use Trendio Ads and not have it collecting information about you.

All things considered, Trendio Ads is an undesirable browser extension that will not improve your browsing experience. Quite the contrary, it will most likely affect it in a negative way by subjecting you to commercial advertisements. Also, it is undesirable because it is used to collect non-personal information about you and use it for marketing and purposes. So if you want to avoid annoying ads and prevent this application from snooping around you should delete it. Thus, we invite you to make use of the removal instructions provided at the bottom.

Remove this browser hijacker from Google Chrome

1. Press the Alt+F keys on your keyboard.
2. Select More tools and click Extensions.
3. Find Trendio Ads and click Remove.