So many VPN companies have zero interest in privacy or just produce malware. This is nothing new, but it is weird to target LLM prompts and conversations.
The extension remains live and featured as of this writing.
The Chrome Web Store should be avoided for security. Google keeps failing at moderaring their store, at the same time kneecaping legitimate adblockers with manifest v3 in the name of security, and failing to remove actual malicious extension after both manual review and dislosure of its behaviour by outsiders.
Running Chrome without any extension isn't ideal either, it would leave people without protection from malvertising and tracking. So better avoid Chrome altogether, use Firefox or Zen Browser or Tor Browser.
Other than being an obvious ad for their own AI, the article was pretty informative.
Per the article, the following were found to be affected. Probably anything by the publisher should not be trusted as they're just a data mining company, so make sure not to download any rebrands or new releases from the same people. Chrome Web Store:
The article never mentions how it knows Urban and others were selling the data it collects. I mean, they probably arr, but Koi needs to prove their claim.
Also, starting a paragraph with "I asked our AI,.." reads exactly like "Merriam Webster defines courage as...". Real bottom of the barrel, bargain bin journalism
tl;dr - a guy writes a simple, useful, open-source browser extension (Hover Zoom) that as part of its functionality needs permissions from Chrome to view every page the user opens. he has receipts of 10 years worth of companies reaching out to him and offering to buy the extension (when concrete dollar amounts are mentioned, they're in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars range). this would only make sense if they wanted to use it for nefarious data-harvesting purposes.
Over the years, I have received many proposals to monetize this extension so I think I'll just start posting them here for fun (but not for profit). The main reason I continue to maintain this exte...
crandlecan
in reply to along_the_road • • •SSUPII
in reply to along_the_road • • •like this
fonix232 likes this.
Hirom
in reply to along_the_road • • •The Chrome Web Store should be avoided for security. Google keeps failing at moderaring their store, at the same time kneecaping legitimate adblockers with manifest v3 in the name of security, and failing to remove actual malicious extension after both manual review and dislosure of its behaviour by outsiders.
Running Chrome without any extension isn't ideal either, it would leave people without protection from malvertising and tracking. So better avoid Chrome altogether, use Firefox or Zen Browser or Tor Browser.
like this
yessikg likes this.
MountingSuspicion
in reply to along_the_road • • •Other than being an obvious ad for their own AI, the article was pretty informative.
Per the article, the following were found to be affected. Probably anything by the publisher should not be trusted as they're just a data mining company, so make sure not to download any rebrands or new releases from the same people.
Chrome Web Store:
Microsoft Edge Add-ons:
like this
yessikg likes this.
Sasquatch
in reply to along_the_road • • •The article never mentions how it knows Urban and others were selling the data it collects. I mean, they probably arr, but Koi needs to prove their claim.
Also, starting a paragraph with "I asked our AI,.." reads exactly like "Merriam Webster defines courage as...". Real bottom of the barrel, bargain bin journalism
melsaskca
in reply to along_the_road • • •I_am_10_squirrels
in reply to melsaskca • • •Captain Beyond
in reply to along_the_road • • •like this
yessikg likes this.
spit_evil_olive_tips
in reply to along_the_road • • •yeah, the browser extension world is an absolute shitshow. the AI part of this is new, but nothing else about it is.
I'd recommend reading Temptations of an open-source browser extension developer from 2021 if you haven't seen it before.
tl;dr - a guy writes a simple, useful, open-source browser extension (Hover Zoom) that as part of its functionality needs permissions from Chrome to view every page the user opens. he has receipts of 10 years worth of companies reaching out to him and offering to buy the extension (when concrete dollar amounts are mentioned, they're in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars range). this would only make sense if they wanted to use it for nefarious data-harvesting purposes.
Temptations of an open-source browser extension developer · extesy hoverzoom · Discussion #670
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