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Uninstall the Nightowl App, now. (robins.one)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The NightOwl application has existed since 2018 and is used to automatically switch between light/dark modes on the operating system. It is an alternative to the built in macOS automatic mode which only switches when the user steps away from the computer.

However, the application has been bought out by “TPE.FYI LLC” in late 2022 that forcibly joins your devices into a botnet for use of market research, without your knowledge (other than the TOS in small text on the download page) or express consent (this feature cannot be turned off, even when the app is quit). This is documented in their terms of service.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (19 children)

This is extremely shady. How do I know if other apps I have are making me part of a botnet?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (10 children)

You need to examine your devices packets and see what servers they're going to. You can do that through Wireshark on Windows, or use an external sniffer to examine them.

I'm not aware of any native apps for Mac that can do that, but maybe others will know.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're just interested in connections (and don't care about packet inspection) you can use Little Snitch (paid) or LuLu (FOSS).

Actually, all the Objective-See Foundation security tools are great and target specific classes of vulnerabilities, like LuLu for outgoing network connections, RansomWhere for detecting ransomwear by looking for encryption events, Oversight that monitors you cameras and microphones and a bunch of other really small, but really useful security utilities. Better than running a shady antivirus that's going to suck up loads of resources and rely on signatures.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

+1 for Objective-See

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