Adware.macOS.Rload

Rload is the name of a potentially unwanted application designed to land on macOS devices, ideally without making any noises about doing so. Marketed as a useful tool capable of enhancing your web browsing experience, Rload may have ulterior motives, as well. When active, Rload will perform enough web redirects to make your head start spinning, and it will do that just as well in Safari as it will in Chrome or Firefox, depending on which your default browser is. Rload could potentially track your browsing history, modify your home and new tab page, or change your default search engine while doing those redirects. Last but not least, Rload may harvest all sorts of data from the sites you have visited along the way. 

Infection Vector

Suppose you find Rload’s application running on your macOS device. If that should be the case, chances are you may have landed on a shady, malware-infested website that advertised Rload by painting a rosy picture about its features. The site may have praised Rload as a handy and efficient tool for enriching your web browsing activity. Alternatively, Rload may reach you as part of a cleverly compiled software bundle. Either way, you end up having Rload on your computer for free. 

Not a Severe-Level Threat

Since Rload often finds itself bundled with other software pieces, security researchers have studied the app carefully enough to conclude that the latter does not pose any significant threats to its host devices. In the worst-case scenario, Rload will tamper with your default browser settings regarding the home page, search engine, and new tab page. Then, it will start pouring tons of tons of ads, either appropriate or inappropriate. Those ads will, in turn, have an impact on system performance big enough to fill Mac enthusiasts with dismay for days on end. The inconvenience could last a while because Rload tends to run as a background process while performing a string of tasks free of any disturbance. Rload’s operations may include, but are not limited to: 

• Web pop-ups and push notifications.
• Data retrieval and analysis.
• In-browser advertisements. 

Based on what it has collected, Rload will then bombard you with tons of personalized ads touting stuff you’d rarely have any interest in. Some of that stuff may turn out to be sitting on fraudulent sites or phishing web pages whose sole aim is to harvest sensitive login data. Therefore, it is not Rload’s proprietary code that poses the most significant risks — it's the unclear status of the sites Rload redirects you to.

Safe Removal

There are always two ways to uninstall an app from your computer. You could either try to remove Rload manually or via a robust anti-malware solution instead. The former method may prompt you to delete Rload from the Utilities folder, but you will need to locate your Activity Monitor's concrete process first. Besides, you would also need to perform a full system backup beforehand in case anything goes wrong. The latter will spare you the difficulty of performing all those tedious sets of operations while preventing Rload from getting a grip on your device again at a later stage.