Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) or Potentially Unwanted Application (PUA) is software that a person gets without wanting it.
Used as tagging criterion by parental control products. Companies often bundle a program with a wrapper application and offer it. Such software may compromise privacy or weaken computer security.
Well, it is mentioned while installing any software but most users do not care or fail to read the agreement in sufficient detail what they downloading/installing exactly.
Why is my browser being redirected?
Unwanted programs (PUP)
PUP has increased in recent years
Are these PUP viruses or hacking?
Not usually. Mostly these are the programs that even have an official website. And not really a virus but possibly an antivirus. It is not particularly a hacking program.
The program marked as PUP or PUA, because it is comes with other software. And user got it without the knowledge or somehow escaped from knowledge.
More on PUP
The term was created by McAfee, an internet security company. It is because marketing firms had an objection to calling their products “spyware”.
McAfee differentiates PUP from malware, viruses, trojans, and worms. Which is easy to assume as unwanted programs.
How to detect and remove PUP from the system?
Some of the software found and removed through the control panel or from the folder created by them. If you are facing something annoying while operating the computer and doubt for such PUPs, then McAfee has listed solutions you can try.