teamviewer unattended for hours just opened a browser by itself to advertise your website

Left my computer (windows 10) switched on all day while it rendered a video. It does a lot of rendering work so it's left on pretty much 24/7. Checked on it after about 10 hours and Firefox is somehow open showing the Teamviewer website. The system has been unattended but with TV logged in (it's always logged in), I haven't opened or interacted with TV for about a week but it's logged in all the time, and it's just decided by itself to open my browser and show your website - this is the page that came up

https://www.teamviewer.com/en/products/teamviewer/?cb-check=GLOBAL%7CB%7CPR%7C20%7Cjan%7Cnewyearp%7Cfree%7Ct0%7C20&gaclientid=**Please do not post TeamViewer IDs**.**Please do not post TeamViewer IDs**&gaclientidtime=**Please do not post TeamViewer IDs**.364&cid=**Please do not post TeamViewer IDs**&automaticClick=true&coupon=CMP-AD-NY-P-20&pid=taf.tv2020-q1-jan-newyear-global-free-20.tv2020-q1-jan-nyspwinp-free&context=0a9049a7-e28a-4b15-94f0-1e507f2f9ca0

I guess this is pretty innoccuous but honestly, opening a browser in the background to show a webpage, without being prompted or asked at all, is absolutely the behaviour of malware, and has been for decades. I can't think of a single example of legit software that will just randomly open your browser and display the company website when left unattended.

For this reason I'm uninstalling Teamviewer and won't be using it again - I don't feel it can be trusted. I've checked the system with ESET and MBAM and nothing is coming up with those guys, and there's no other symptoms aside from the Teamviewer website just opening itself for no reason, so it's pretty clear what software is responsible...

 

 

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Comments

  • AlexFogerty
    AlexFogerty Posts: 35 ✭✭

    I have the same issue, except I have hundreds of computers doing it, and ends users calling to ask why their browser has been hijacked by TeamViewer advertisements.

  • Just had it start happenning to my computers today as well. Worse, on one of my Macintoshes, it blocked some of my background processes from running that alert me to things like network issues and Time Machine failures. Had I not discovered it this evening, I suspect the household overnight backups would have failed. 

    TeamViewer is now deleted from all my computers. IMHO, this behavior makes TeamViewer the equivalant of malware. I am done with them and they are permanently disqualified from doing business any place I have a say in the matter.

  • I have the same issue. I have teamviewer running in the background of a information display monitor but the teamviewer advertising tab takes over the information... very annoying!

  • had the same issue yesterday. Started a new job last week, got a new laptop, it has teamviewer installed but I haven't opened it yet. Randomly while my computer was doing nothing, i looked over and Chrome had launched with this web page. Same thing happened to one of my colleagues while they were RDP'd on to a clients machine, the clients machine had spawned this web page, then later on it happened to another one of my colleagues while they were RDP'd on to a server. Can we get an update on teamviewer as to what caused this behaviour and how to prevent it from happening again. Doesn't seem very secure for a product that makes connections between machines over the internet.

  • AlexFogerty
    AlexFogerty Posts: 35 ✭✭

    @Stefanov wrote:

    I have the same issue. I have teamviewer running in the background of a information display monitor but the teamviewer advertising tab takes over the information... very annoying!


    Oh dear, you make a very good point, I'm going to have to go through all our information displays now to see if it has affected any of them. This could be quite embarrassing for us.

  • Tyrell
    Tyrell Posts: 1

    Same issue here, just started over the last couple of days.  Getting inundated with calls from users asking why a teamviewer browser window is opening when they havent done anything (most of them dont know teamviewer is installed as its for remote management in the event of an issue).  Can someone at TV advise why this is happening and stop it urgently before we have to cancel our subscription and move to another tool that doesnt do this?

  • Is there still no response from TW about this matter? 
    There is no need to target users who pay license with such spam. 
    I get one for every time the computer restarts. 
    Have uninstalled it and using the portable version. But then agian the purpuse of this is limited. 

     

  • asdfghjk_123
    asdfghjk_123 Posts: 2 ✭✭

    Have same issue just now. I left my pc open overnight and when I wake up in the morning just saw teamviewer is already opened and there is opened tab in chrome related to teamviewer. Creepy Software! Hope to hear from TeamViewer about this. 😫

  • asdfghjk_123
    asdfghjk_123 Posts: 2 ✭✭
    edited March 2021


    Relief after I saw this thread because I had the same issue just now. I left my pc open overnight and when I wake up in the morning just saw teamviewer is already opened and there is opened tab in chrome related to teamviewer. Creepy! Hope to hear from TeamViewer about this. 😫

  • Tiavor
    Tiavor Posts: 1
    edited December 2021

    2 years and still now answer or workaround? oof. I just installed Teamviewer because I was unable to get OpenVPN working to use RDP and now the "how to use teamviewer" page greets me each time I connect. every workaround that comes to my mind doesn't change that the browser opens, only that the website doesn't display.