exclude directory on scan - F-Secure secure Anti-Virus for mac

TB
TB Posts: 1 Observer

When selecting what to scan it would be very helpful to be able to exclude a directory from the scan.

 

For example I would like to scan the complete hard disk "Macintosh HD" but exclude the directory /Volumes that is the mount point of the Time Machine backups that take forever to scan.

 

 

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Completed · Last Updated

Comments

  • Hello!
    Thank you for your new idea. We will evaluate it and our Product manager will comment it later on.
    Cheers

    ElseH
    F-Secure Community Manager

  • Hi TB, Thanks for your feature idea. We will consider this as one of the candidates for our upcoming releases. Regards, Sami
  • ingel
    ingel Posts: 1 New Member

    Hi,

     

    Could you please tell me what the status is of this issue. I would be very much helped if excluding directories would be an option. Particularly Time Machine is taking ages.

     

    Thanks and best,

     

    Peter

  • Donatellos
    Donatellos Posts: 1 New Member

    Hi. Also running vm's inside mac is impossible when you can not exclude the vm image file from scanning.

    br, Toni

     

  • HeikoG
    HeikoG Posts: 1 New Member
    Wow, they considered it in 2012 and in 2017 nothing has happened. That is a fast user-driven development department you have!
  • igge
    igge Posts: 5 New Member

    Hi Heiko and all the others,

     

    I encounter similar problems:

     

     https://community.f-secure.com/t5/F-Secure-SAFE/Excluding-Files-or-Folders-in/td-p/90467

     

    NOT ANSWERED: Reminder about your privacy policies and principles - Excluding Files or Folders in macOS

    Hi,

     

    for my company (and many others) it is very important, that I do not store data to 3rd party clouds, but with the macOS Version and your privacy policy I cannot ensure that:

     

    "Unknown executables can be sent to Security Cloud for scanning. These files will be scanned for malware, and discarded immediately if clean. Suspicious files will be kept for a short period in order to perform a deeper analysis. Any files classified as malware will be stored. Files classified as clean software are promptly deleted. Files received from user devices are passed through our automated analysis systems under strict controls and are never shared with third parties. Interpreted code, like Flash, Silverlight and scripts, may also be handled as executable files."

     

    https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/legal/privacy/security-cloud

     

    Every script I program is an unknown executable, thus it gets uploaded to your cloud and worse if you decide it is necessary you share those files:

     

    "We will share some of the uploaded data with our subcontractor partners. We only do so if they need it to help us providing these services. Any such shared data is always anonymous."

     

    https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/legal/privacy/security-cloud

     

    For Windows you have the solution to exclude files and folders:

     

    Internet Security 2013/2014:
    https://community.f-secure.com/t5/Security-for-PC/How-do-I-exclude-a-file-or/ta-p/15398

    Internet Security 2015:
    https://community.f-secure.com/t5/Security-for-PC/How-do-I-exclude-a-file-or/ta-p/56363

     

    Client Security:
    https://help.f-secure.com/product.html#business/client-security/12.00/en/task_13205052E3D44C44BA2491...

     

    Policy Manager and PSB Workstation:
    https://community.f-secure.com/t5/Management/Excluding-objects-from-Real-Time/ta-p/6601

     

    WHY NOT FOR MACOS ?

    And two related questions coming to my mind:

     

    1. Am I at some point informed that you upload the file (and not only a hash) to your cloud? Hence the system is anonymous (at least that is what you say https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/legal/privacy/security-cloud) it has to be in advanced. So a pop-up: "do you want to upload the file for further analysis [YES] [NO]"

     

    2. What if the file is encrypted, say a password file or an encrypted server key, do you try to decrypt the file or is it automatically flagged as clean? Will you hand it over to a 3rd party to decrypt it?

     

    EDIT: Because nobody answered so far I want to elaborate on the problem.

     

    In your privacy principles you write:

     

    1. We respect your right to privacy
    First and foremost, we respect your privacy in everything we do. Your trust is important to us. We respect your control of your personal data and digital content, and it's our priority to prevent unauthorized access to it by anyone. Whenever we ask you for information, it is to better serve you: If we don't need it, we won't ask for it.

     

    https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/legal/principles

     

     

    Well, if you look in Wikipedia

     

    Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy

     

    yeh, ahh, no privacy at all at a MAC, there is no way to express myself selectively in the sense described here, the only option I have on a MAC is to say  [x] Use Security Cloud. But your principles go on:

     

    3. You decide how much you share with us
    To provide you even better services and relevant messages, we collect information about how our applications are found and used. This means that when you're using our services, we track things like which features are used most and which actions trigger error messages. However, if you are uncomfortable with tracking, we completely appreciate that and therefore F-Secure products offer opt-out possibilities from non-critical data collection.

     

    Total fail on MAC or can you explain me, where I find that mysterious button to express that on a MAC, and again the least thing I would expect is to have a way to exclude Files and Folders.

     

    And coming to your EULA:

     

    https://www.f-secure.com/web/legal/terms/software

     

    For the Software to function as intended, you assign F-Secure to do the following where it is necessary for providing the related Services to you.
    Security Operations. You authorize F-Secure, on your behalf, to copy suspicious files containing executable code from your Device or from your third party service accounts linked to Software to F-Secure backend systems, so F-Secure can more effectively analyse them for malicious activity.
    Conveying Your Files. Where you are causing the content to be backed up, transferred, copied, duplicated, adapted, altered, utilized, synchronized or published through your use of the Software, you acknowledge that F-Secure (and/or F-Secure's operator partner, as applicable)  (COMMENT: Yeah really, I thought uploaded data will not be shared with 3rd parties https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/legal/privacy/security-cloud) may also need to process the same content on your behalf for the Software to function. To that effect; you grant F-Secure (and/or F-Secure's operator partner, where applicable) a license to process the content (COMMENT: a LICENSE to everything I have on my computer, I'm pretty sure that such an EULA clause is against European data protection laws) to the extent necessary to enable us to provide you with applicable content management services. You will retain the control of your content (Nice joke at the end, or is it meant sarcastically, sometimes don't get sarcasm, so).

     

    As more I read as more disappointed I become ...

  • Ken5
    Ken5 Posts: 1 New Member

    I'd like to urge you to get a move on to fix the request made in 2012 - 

    When selecting what to scan it would be very helpful to be able to exclude a directory from the scan.

     For example I would like to scan the complete hard disk "Macintosh HD" but exclude the directory /Volumes that is the mount point of the Time Machine backups that take forever to scan.

     

    This is still a live issue, and you haven't done anything about it in 5 years - are you intending to do anything? If not, you should stop marketing F-Secure SAFE to MAC home users like myself, because it slows down TimeMachine something rotten, and it's got worse since installing High Sierra. Please sort it out.

  • Vetraci
    Vetraci Posts: 156 Adventurer

    I would really appreciate to be able to exclude certain files or folders from real-time scanning on MacOs. It's a pity that F-Secure is not responding at all anymore  to this feature request.

  • scf
    scf Posts: 1 New Member

    Hi,

     

    Is there any update on this requirement (to exclude directories) on the Mac F-Safe product?

     

    I am about to have to research alternatives if a solution is not available.

     

    If there's anyone from F-Secure listening, please respond.

     

    Thanks,  Stephen

  • Ukko
    Ukko Posts: 3,743 Superuser

    Hello,

    There is a beta introduced with some improvements about this subject: https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/123739/fs-protection-for-mac-17-11-releases

    With some limitation as "The feature is available starting from macOS Catalina (10.15)."

    Maybe someone (interested) who has access to the beta can to check how well implemented and whether this request covers.

  • K_P
    K_P Posts: 54 Contributor

    What is the current status of this? May be I miss something, but still did not find this feature (exclude directories) from the configuration options?

  • Jaims
    Jaims Posts: 846 Former F-Secure Employee

    Hi @TB

    This idea has been implemented and now in production.

    The Idea is now considered completed and closed!

    Thank you for your suggestion.

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