Privacy Center is a form of
scareware
Scareware is a form of malware which uses social engineering to cause shock, anxiety, or the perception of a threat in order to manipulate users into buying unwanted software. Scareware is part of a class of malicious software that includes r ...
that hijacks
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
operating systems. It masquerades as a
spyware
Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their privac ...
remover, performs fake system scans to report (fake) infections and persuades the user to purchase the "full version" of Privacy Center to remove the reported infections and to protect the PC from future infections. It appears as a green system tray icon that often takes over the screen and blocks the desktop, including the start icon. Unlike other
rogue anti-viruses, Privacy Center has the capability of running in
safe mode. Attempts to close the system tray are futile. Also, the system will often not acknowledge the insertion of a USB flash drive.
Method of Infection
The virus is installed when users click on a fake
video codec
A video codec is software or hardware that compresses and decompresses digital video. In the context of video compression, ''codec'' is a portmanteau of ''encoder'' and ''decoder'', while a device that only compresses is typically called an '' ...
that is "required" to play an online "movie". Once a user clicks on the codec, Privacy Center will be installed as opposed to the video playing.
It may also get installed when users click on some scripts in rogue security software sites. In August 2009, it was reported that Privacy Center can embed itself in another rogue anti-virus called PC AntiSpyware 2010.
[{{Cite web, url=https://www.precisesecurity.com/blogs/2009/03/26/privacy-center, title=Privacy Center - Virus Solution and Removal, date=2009-03-26, website=Security and Tech Blogs, language=en-US, access-date=2019-10-12]
References
Rogue software