Browser Extensions With 8 Million Users Collect Extended AI Conversations

An anonymous reader shares a report: Browser extensions with more than 8 million installs are harvesting complete and extended conversations from users' AI conversations and selling them for marketing purposes, according to data collected from the Google and Microsoft pages hosting them.

Security firm Koi discovered the eight extensions, which as of late Tuesday night remained available in both Google's and Microsoft's extension stores. Seven of them carry "Featured" badges, which are endorsements meant to signal that the companies have determined the extensions meet their quality standards. The free extensions provide functions such as VPN routing to safeguard online privacy and ad blocking for ad-free browsing. All provide assurances that user data remains anonymous and isnâ(TM)t shared for purposes other than their described use.

So Google and Microsoft are Malware vendors!

[oldgraybeard]

"Google's and Microsoft's extension stores" Seems these two entities have an internal vetting problem of their own.

Cagey summary.

[WolfgangVL]

They are:

Chrome Store

Urban VPN Proxy: 6 million users
1ClickVPN Proxy: 600,000 users
Urban Browser Guard: 40,000 users
Urban Ad Blocker: 10,000 users
Edge Add-ons:

Urban VPN Proxy: 1,32 million users
1ClickVPN Proxy: 36,459 users
Urban Browser Guard – 12,624 users
Urban Ad Blocker – 6,476 users

Re:Cagey summary.

[MachineShedFred]

Seriously. Why talk about 8 browser extensions that are doing shady shit, and not actually NAME THEM.

What the hell has happened to this once-great site...

Re:

[FudRucker]

That's just the ones they know about, there could be more they did not report on or just have not discovered yet, won't be the first time Google play store or browser extensions were found to be delivering malacious software,

Re:

[jbmartin6]

Some might argue that a list of 8 like this is too long for a summary. Surely if it were a list of 100 extensions you would agree that the list does not belong in the summary. One can always RTFA

all these tech companies that datamine

[FudRucker]

There should be a class action against them all for theft of data and theft of internet bandwidth because they are stealing both from users, and internet bandwidth angers me because that stuff is NOT free

Re:

[hwstar]

An you can bet the terms of service have a "Predispute Arbitration Clause" which prevents you from the benefits of a jury trial, or bringing a class action lawsuit against them even if you are compelled to arbitrate. This is the latest thing they put in these click-wrap contracts.
 

Re:all these tech companies that datamine

[FudRucker]

Not enforceable in a class action, if the judge/jury finds it needs to be stopped they can do it

Don't add extensions to Chrome or Edge

[hwstar]

Both these browsers are sticky snare traps. Use them only to access websites which won't work with a mozilla-based browser engine.

They chose the simplest "we check AI chats" method

[Anonymous Coward]

They say up front that they check your AI chats for personal data as a method of protection. The simplest way to do that is to get in the middle and send chats back to their server to check for personal data before sending it on to the AI's in question, and then check the results before sending them back. Perhaps this isn't quite as nefarious as it looks? They can check it for any of their other customers personal data at the same time.

I mean, it certainly IS suspicious, but they might not be doing anything

Re: They chose the simplest "we check AI chats" me

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Buddy, TFA literary quotes their ToS where it says the collected data are used for "marketing research".

Re:

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Maybe literary, maybe literally, the autocarrot is never sure...