The Book Hub
The Book Hub software from h[tt]p://thebookhub[.]co is promoted as a reliable new tab replacement for IE, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox users. The Book Hub software can be installed on all three major Web browsers for free. The Book Hub new tab replacement is created and maintained by a marketing company called Polarity Technologies Ltd that makes the application available for free. However, the company collects non-personally identifiable data from users and shows targeted commercials via a custom Yahoo engine. Also, Polarity performs redirects to Search.hthebookhub.co and helps cooperating sites produce relevant advertisements based on your recent Internet activity.
The Book Hub is designed to change the new tab, primary search aggregator and homepage for users so that Polarity can capitalize on the user’s Web traffic and download persistent tracking cookies to their machines. The Book Hub supports CRX (Chrome extensions), BHO (IE add-ons) and XPI (Firefox add-ons) versions that force the browsers to load search.hthebookhub.co whenever a new tab is opened, a search query is initiated via the Omnibox/search bar and you start an online session.
The Book Hub extension asks for the following permissions on Google Chrome:
- Read and change all your data on the websites you visit.
- Manage your applications, extensions and themes.
- Replace the page you see when opening a new tab.
- Change your search settings to search.hthebookhub.co.
The Book Hub add-on asks for the following permissions on Mozilla Firefox:
- Access your data for all websites.
- Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox.
- Access browser tabs.
- Access browser activity during navigation.
- Monitor extension usage and manage themes.
The Book Hub add-on shows the following notification in IE when you download its installer:
“By continuing with the installation, you agree to:
Set your home page, new tab page and default search to hthebookhub.co powered by Yahoo!”
The Book Hub New Tab is available at h[tt]p://search.hthebookhub[.]co and you don’t need to install the associated software into your Web browser. The Book Hub New Tab includes links to Goodreads.com/genres/ebooks, Amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks, and Play.google.com/store that offer free e-books occasionally and don’t require users to install the application from Polarity Technologies Ltd. The Book Hub suite is categorized as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) that records your browsing history and is used by Polarity to facilitate targeted marketing. You may want to uninstall The Book Hub New Tab software with the help of a reliable anti-spyware instrument. AV engines may flag the related files with the following detection names:
- Adware.Spigot.145
- Application.Toolbar (A)
- PUA.Gen.4
- PUA:Win32/WinWrapper
- Win32.Application.SpringTech.A
