Internet Cleanup 4.0 for the Mac

Reviewed by Robert Pritchett

I ran Internet Cleanup 5.0 for non-Mac machines. It is designed for Windows 2000 or later, but I ran it on a Win 98 box and it found and removed 25 spyware entities and left one behind because it could not remove it. On a Win XP machine, it found 145 spyware entities, consolidated instances and removed a final 45 entities. The owner of the second machine bought a copy. The owner of the first machine is seriously looking at buying a Mac.

I asked for an update, because the last version of Internet Cleanup is one I bought back in 2004 as version 2.0. I was sent the download version 4.0 for the Mac.

What They Say

WHO’S WATCHING YOU?

Is that application secretly phoning home? Are you being tracked online? Surveillance spyware can be installed without your knowledge and can watch your every move. Don’t give up your privacy. Safeguard your Mac online and offline with Internet Cleanup 4!

Protect Your Personal Information
Stop your personal information from being transmitted over the Internet. You choose what information you want protected, and only a password can unlock it. If you are tricked onto a non-secure web page, Internet Cleanup's Personal Info Protector will block any of that info from being sent over the Internet.

Detect and Eliminate Spyware
Surveillance programs watch your every move. Don’t let someone record what you type, track where you go, or take snapshots of your screen. Internet Cleanup 4's enhanced Network SpyAlert™ makes it even easier to stop programs from making secret online connections and stop spam emails from reporting back home.

Now Selectively Block FLASH Ads 
Pop-ups are distracting and annoying. Banner ads can slow down your surfing to a crawl. Netblockade™ will filter ads selectively or turn them off entirely, block pop-ups and pop-unders, and even block Flash ads! NetBlockade supports all major browsers, including Safari, Firefox, and IE.

Sort and Toss Unwelcome Email Attachments 
Strip unwanted attachments from Apple Mail, Entourage, and Eudora emails without deleting the text message they arrived with, automatically! With the SmartRules™, you can sort through thousands of email for particular attachments, then delete, move, or archive them!

Cover Your Online Tracks
Wield total control over third party web cookies, or let Internet Cleanup's enhanced and automated cookie management handle the cleanup tasks for you. Erase web browser histories and cache files, erase Instant Messenger chat logs, and more.

Stop Web Sites from Watching You
Browsers store the web pages you visit! Anyone can easily examine your web browser’s cache, cookies, and history of sites visited! Internet Cleanup 4 supports more browsers than ever before!

Make Sure Those Files are Truly Gone 
Tossing private or confidential files in the trash doesn’t prevent them from being recovered. Even emptying the trash won’t protect you from prying eyes. Shred those Files! Secure Delete™ ensures your files will be permanently overwritten and completely unrecoverable.

What I Say

I really wanted to give this one a go. You know, we like to say that we test and evaluate so you don’t have to, right?

Well, after reading all the other reviews that pretty much diss this app, I had to try it out and see if they were right about it. I think they got it right. It acts like a PC app. It slows things down and locks things up on my Mac. It “owns” Mac OS X. Netblockade takes over and that is just one of the various utilities in this package..

There are other alternatives we’ve reviewed before that function better per app. This package attempts to combine a number of activities into one package and falls all over itself and does some cruel things to Mac OS X. It is mind-boggling that a package that did so well in version 2.0 could have gone downhill so far in version 4.0! What the heck happened when they went from Alladin Systems to Allume to Smith Micro?

When NetBlockade is on, most of the macCompanion website pages loose their tabs and graphics. Not all, just most. Go figure.

I tried Mail Cleaner, but it hung after letting it run nearly all day.

I don’t use IM, but the IM Cleaner ran and removed iChat logs.

I attempted to run Spy Alert, but apparently, there is also a Network Spy Alert.

There is also an Internet File Finder, a Personal Info Protector a Scheduler, a Program Control and a Secure Delete.

Starting the Secure Delete shows a shredder and Internet Cleanup started removing my Internet Cache files. The same behavior happened when I ran Spy Alert.

I can’t help but wonder if Secure Delete does exactly the same thing as the Finder Secure Trash that is part of Mac OS X?

Other reviews give this app a 2 or 2.5. Sorry, but I give it a 1. Where is the next rev, so it plays nice with Tiger or Leopard? This acts and looks like a port from the non-Mac environment instead of a good update from version 2.0.

It is a sad state of affairs when the 39-page User’s Guide is better than the software it is written for.- and it doesn’t have a Table of Contents.

By the way in attempting to remove this package from my machine using the standard removal process doesn’t work very well. And this may be what triggered AppZapper to be created. Anyhow, if you bought a copy and need to remove it, the only way to really get rid of it is by downloading the demo version and going to custom where the uninstall app is located. No kidding!

The recommendation from others is, “don’t waste your money”. I guess I have to agree this time. Here is one instance where the “cure” is worse than the disease. Sorry, until Smith Micro cleans this app up in Rev 5.0, I do not recommend it.