Unless you’re intentionally searching for this, its true you don’t know even this exist in your Chrome app data folder. FYI, when you install Chrome,Software_reporter_tool.exe also gets downloaded and will be visible in Chrome app data folder under SwReporter folder, and can be reached by running this command from Run dialog:%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter.
No you don’t need to worry about this as this component is digitally signed by Google has a description Chrome Cleanup Tool when you check its properties.
Software Reporter Tool and Chrome Cleanup tool, what the difference between them?
FYI, Google offers standalone Chrome Cleanup Tool (formerly known as Software Removal Tool) for Windows, to find and remove programs that cause trouble with Chrome.
Role of SRT/ what does it actually do?: Yes! Both Software Reporter Tool and Chrome Cleanup tool are same. But the former one installed with Google browser and resides in Chrome app data folder has a different task do:
According to Google, this tool which used to run once a week and doesn’t have a network communication, lets Chrome know about the scan results. To elaborate, it reports about unwanted software detection to Chrome so that it prompts user to run Chrome Cleanup tool.
Google employee said this as a reply to a user reported in a forum thread when asked Chrome cleanup tool installed automatically without his consent:
“software_reporter_tool.exe is an executable that is signed by Google and downloaded as a component under Chrome’s application data folder. It is used to report whether unwanted software is present on the computer so that Chrome can prompt the user to run the Chrome Cleanup Tool (which used to be named Software Removal Tool, aka SRT).”
Privacy
” Note that the reporter doesn’t have any network communication. It just lets Chrome know about the results of the scan. For Chrome users that opted-into metrics reporting, some of these results will be included in the metrics sent back to Google.”
You may want to check the information sent by Chrome Cleanup tool to Google, to see that info, when the tool is running click on ‘information about your computer’ (check the above screenshot), which opens the log file. You can also find the Chrome Cleanup Tool log file here :%localappdata%\Google\Chrome Cleanup Tool.