Should I allow AURA full disk access to my macbook and my iPhone 16 pro

wrigleybk wrote:

I just subscribed to AURA Security & Anitvirus. AURA wants me to all "full disk access" to their application; is that safe? Thank you.

[Edited by Moderator]

I would not. Why do you think you need this extension or AV...(?)

the general rule is uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

Third party AntiVirus is not recommended— it typically does nothing but add issues to the macOS and competes directly with Apple’s own built in security:

macOS antivirus - Protecting against malware in macOS - Apple Support

Security and your Apple Account Security and your Apple Account - Apple Support

Apple Platform Security - Apple Apple Platform Security - Apple Support

Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls

Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Protecting against malware in macOS

Protecting against malware in macOS - Apple Support

Effective defenses against malware and other threats… - Apple Community

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

Chrome is already scraping your data, this seems dubious enough— “it also installs two startup agents. One does nothing but check for updates. The other gathers data on you and uploads it to Google. All without your knowledge or permission. And since it loads at startup, this agent is active the entire time your Mac is on, whether Chrome itself is running or not.”

ref: Kurt Lang

I agree with leroy, absolutely do not install AURA or grant it access.

Signed system volume security - Apple Support

The modern MacOS has effectively a sealed, signed system volume that is readonly except when accessed by Apple's certified servers, for instance to perform a MacOS update. Technically, the OS is in a readonly "snapshot." This means that even the computer owner cannot edit or install something into the MacOS. Obviously there is no way for a virus to infiltrate such a MacOS.

Typically anti-virus software and tools embed many items throughout the user's interface to the OS, and this can affect or interfere with the interaction of the user with the Mac. When the OS is subsequently updated, sometimes some of these many parts stop working properly until the vendor updates their anti-virus code.

There have been many, many postings in Apple Discussions where users reports problems with their computers that have been traced to such anti-virus software. I would not install it. And granting it access to all your files, keep in mind these anti-virus tools "phone home" constantly. This in fact makes your Mac less, not more, secure.

My employer mandates an anti-virus package on every one of its computers. This dramatically slows down performance. Time Machine, which is a crucial part of many users' backup strategy, is slower by a factor of 10x or 100x ... this means incremental Time Machine backups, instead of taking ~ 60 seconds, can take ~ hours. There are other conflicts as well. Initial Time Machine backups on my home machines take 1-2 hours; on the work computer a recent one I did took over 24 hours.

https://help.aura.com/s/article/how-to-uninstall-the-aura-app-on-windows

... has some guidance.

After doing that, you might then want to use Find Any File to search for "aura" in all filenames and folder names, and also within file contents. Search within visible as well as hidden files and folders and do it with admin privileges. There may be some (or many) false positives, but you should go through each one and delete the files or folders that seem to be related to the Aura installation.