
How to block the Chrome Software Reporter Tool (2018) - rahuldottech
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/01/20/how-to-block-the-chrome-software-reporter-tool-software_reporter_tool-exe/
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Cougher
This is a basic example of Google's treatment of its users. They could have
offered this to users as an option to help their browsers run more smoothly,
while informing the users of the extra CPU drain. Better yet, since what
they're monitoring could increase user awareness of what their computers are
doing, they could offer to "cc" the reports to the users. This transparency
would also put a better face on Google.

But this is not what they did. I don't know what their reasoning was, but I'll
perceive it as a callous disregard for the user at best.

And you gotta love the comments section. Within the first five comments, we
have Google described as being a nefarious organization created by the US
government, the Russians, and the Jews.

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patient_zero
I'm not defending the practice, but 'scanning for all executables', is false.

'Scans all folders related to chrome' is true. Title is flat out wrong.

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jtylr
> A Google community specialist mentioned that the tool scans folders related
> to Chrome only, but its scope is not exposed to the user in any way.

The title seems a bit of a leap.

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finnjohnsen2
Click bait indeed. It does in-fact not scan your PC for _all_ executables.

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endijs
I usually use only Firefox, but when I need to launch Chrome to test
something, this reporter tool creates a very significant load one the system
in terms of SSD and CPU usage. For the last few times I have simply killed the
process, but will see if any of permanent ways to disable this reporter tool
really work.

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pieter_mj
Deleting it doesn't work since it is recreated on startup of chrome.

I modified the folder acl '\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter'
to not be able to run the executable. That seems to stick (at least when run
as a limited user).

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mirages
Not a flag for me. As I have an old HDD, reading can be slow. And sevral times
I found out that the software_reporter_tool was scanning everything (it was
when it was reading all steam games folder)

Since then I stopped beliving what google said about it and I made a scheduled
job to kill and delete SWRT folders every hours

Oh and the registry value doesn't disable it in any way

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tomashubelbauer
The title is missing (2018) or (2019) - not sure if the title should have the
created or the updated date actually. Anyway, nothing indicates this is
current, so the title should have some year

Also the title is total clickbait and while the topic is interesting, it would
be great to have a less biased/reaching submission on it.

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dplgk
Related: about a month ago, Google auto updater which runs in the background,
really started going crazy recently tripping up my little snitch many times a
day. Previously, little snitch never mentioned it.

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apexalpha
Alternative title: every random binary still has full file system acces in
Windows.

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teh_klev
That is in fact incorrect.

Windows NTFS permissions are strictly enforced and depending on the identity
the executable was launched under and that identity's group membership (and
perhaps some additional "user rights assignments"), the executable can only
access drives, files and folders where permissions are granted.

Now sure if you allow that executable to launch as SYSTEM then it's game over
(much in the same way launching a binary as root is game over).

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dtech
Is this a defense against malware and problematic chrome plugins?

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rvoje
I was wondering which executables is this hunting aswell. What else does
chrome run besides itself? Is it flash and the likes of it?

