The promise of a total maintenance, anti-virus and backup solution for your Mac in a single app sounds very appealing, but you don’t want or need this app. If you have been lured in by the aggressive, intrusive web ad campaign and have installed MacKeeper, my advice is to uninstall it ASAP. If you are tempted to buy it, don’t.
In short, while not designed as malware like MacDefender was, this is an application that has caused significant problems with many people’s Macs, and is marketed and priced in what I consider a deceptive and unethical manner by the Russian developer, ZeoBIT.
It is advertised at $14.95 but you will find out after you buy it that that’s just for six months, then you have to renew. ZeoBIT is notorious for planting fake flattering reviews of MacKeeper on Web forums, including some reputable ones. There are also fake forums such as a web site claiming to be a review site for Mac software which has exactly one review on it; for MacKeeper. This review includes much misinformation including the patently false statement that “42% of Macs are infected with viruses” and other scare tactics.
If you want further opinions on MacKeeper, The Apple Support Communities discussion forums contain may threads about problems with this software and its developer. There is also some good documentation of ZeoBIT’s deceptive practices and lack of ethics in the blog post Beware MacKeeper. More importantly, this post also includes an extensive listing of free apps that accomplish everything that MacKeeper claims to do.
If you are tired of seeing the pop-up, pop-under and banner ads for MacKeeper everywhere, download and install the free Glimmerblocker in Safari. This will block most, but not all of them. I recently saw one on Snopes, a site dedicated to exposing and debunking fraud and misinformation on the web and in emails. It seems ironic that they would accept advertising from a company with so many complaints about deception and unethical behavior. Oh well, “When you see a situation you can’t understand, look for the financial interest”. And if it involves the French or a politician, you can add “cherchez la femme:”
