Google Chrome WARNING: Popular browser extension is secretly recording EVERYTHING you do online

[colin_b]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... nline.html

Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox users may have had their entire online history siphoned and stored by third-party developers.

That's according to a prominent security researcher who found a popular plugin for the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox was recording everything users did online.

The software, which is designed to allow users to customise the appearance of how webpages appear inside the web browsers, has been hijacked by spyware.

The extension, which has more than 1.8 million users worldwide, may have been recording the browsing history of everyone who uses it.

Worse still, this browsing data could be linked to details that make users identifiable in the real world, making them vulnerable to hackers and blackmailers.

The finding was made by Robert Theaton, a software engineer from San Francisco, who discovered the software, dubbed Stylish, had been recording browser history since January 2017, when it was bought by new owners SimilarWeb.

[wulf]

Yup, this was also reported in the Register....goodbye legacy addons and hello web extensions..Kinda kicked the whole, "Web extensions will provide a more secure browsing experience", statement into a cocked-hat...

[handy]

You have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater...

[Stevo]

Firefox is now blocking the Stylish extension, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Chrome do the same. I wonder if SimilarWeb is open to prosecution for this stunt.

[ChrisUK]

People were warned of this 18 months ago:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... er-add-on/