What is Searchlee?

A number of web users have recently been reporting that whenever they open their Safari browser, they are automatically being redirected to “searchlee”. But what exactly searchlee is and how could you deal with it and stop its annoying redirects? This is what you will learn if you read this article till the end.

What is Searchlee on Safari?

Searchlee belongs to a class of programs on the web, called Browser Hijackers, which are known to attach to popular browsers with the idea to change their settings, keep track of users’ web browsing activity and promote specific web addresses, search engines, and sponsored advertisements on their screen. Searchlee seems to be doing exactly that, thus, it is considered a potentially unwanted program of the browser hijacking class.

Typically, Searchlee attaches to popular mac browsers like Safari and others and performs an auto-redirect to searchlee.com, a questionable search engine that displays misleading search results and tons of sketchy advertisements in the form of pop-ups, banners, and click-bait links. Another related site where searchlee may redirect to is the search.82paodatc.com domain.

The Searchlee app is a product of Linkury Inc., a software developer known for the development of another pretty invasive browser hijacking program called Safe Finder. The app’s serving IP address is 172.67.199.243.

Users can easily find out that their browser has been hijacked by Searchlee because, as soon as they open it and start a new browsing session or enter a specific web address in the URL bar, they experience an instant automatic reroute to the searchlee.com site. In some cases, the address of the homepage may also be modified to this same bogus URL so that every time a new tab is opened, the promoted domain gets loaded.

When users enter a search query in their hijacked mac browser, searchlee.com typically generates some sponsored results and displays dozens of aggressive advertisements on the screen. If not removed from your Mac, this browser hijacker may constantly spam you with unwanted promotional messages during your web surfing sessions and may display search results that promote different software download sites, as well as numerous spam pages such as “You Won A Prize” and “You Are A Winner” pages. Users may also often see various fake warning messages generated by Searchlee on their Mac’s screen and links to likely malicious web locations.

In addition to that disturbance, Searchlee may collect browsing information from Safari, such as IP addresses, geolocation, search requests entered, URLs of pages visited, and other browsing-related details. This data-collection activity is quite common for most browser hijackers since their developers like to keep track of such information and use it to monetize these apps even sell the collected details to third parties for profits.

How did Searchlee end up on your Mac?

Searchlee, just like most Browser Hijackers, is commonly distributed across the web in a bundle with freeware (free software). That’s why the most common way to end up with this app on your Mac is when you download and install different program bundles without carefully reading their pre-set configurations and the fine print that comes with them.

Fortunately, bundled potentially unwanted programs may easily be rejected from the main installer by clicking on the “Advanced/Custom” settings or unchecking their check-boxes during the setup process. Sadly, few users keep a close eye on these settings and read the fine print that comes with the checkboxes, thus, in the majority of cases, they install apps like Searchlee on their Mac along with the main app without even knowing it.

Keeping Searchlee on your Mac, however, is not a good idea. Not only can this browser hijacker mess with your web surfing experience, but it may also slow your Mac down and expose you to different sketchy web locations. That’s why it is usually best to remove it from your Mac device as soon as you detect it.

We have created a detailed guide to check if your mac has a virus.

How to remove Searchlee?

To remove Searchlee from Safari or other mac browsers you can follow this link to a comprehensive how to remove Searchlee guide.