We needed to do this because we no longer run all of our software as root, and we didn't want to 'borrow' any of Apple's standard accounts. If you run the uninstall app we will automatically remove that user from your system. We automatically create an account called '_sophos' when we install the software. Investigate which sort of phoning-home the AV vendors are doing.Ī Sophos staff member had this to say about the user account: Most 'spying' is more diagnostics & product usage (telemetry- which helps the products improve) as opposed to marketing snooping. Some AV programs do 'spy' (typically disclosing what/where they glean) on users and it's worth looking into which companies do that and in what way. However, in a business environment or where multiple users will have access to the machine and the like it's often a good idea to have the safety net of an antivirus. macOS is still just an operating system that can have its safeguards/protections circumnavigated by malicious actors.ĭo they need an active virus scanner? Not really, as long as you browse the internet with discretion, keep stuff up-to-date, and are wary about launching/opening files. It's more difficult to write viruses for Mac, it's more difficult for Mac users to inadvertently install/run malicious programs, and the market for infecting Macs is muuuch smaller than the one for PCs. Macs are more secure than their PC counterparts, but feel free to wholly ignore people who say Macs don't get viruses.

Thought I'd toss in my two cents, since I think a lot of bad answers have popped up on this thread.

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