Privacy is an essential factor for users when browsing the internet, however, on many occasions, their personal data gets hacked due to various reasons. One of them might be installing some add-ons on your browsers. Specifically for Google Chrome, which has become the most used browser worldwide with a market share of 70%.
This
success is mainly based on its support for the use of different extensions that
allow the integration of new functions to improve the browsing experience and
increase the performance of the web page.
Although
the improvements to installing Chrome extensions are huge, there are also a
number of risks that could put your personal data at risk.
At
least that was confirmed by an investigation by developer z0cc, which analyzed
more than 1,170 add-ons and discovered that many of them had the resources to
track user data.
- How can Chrome extensions spy on you ?
Most
Chrome users have a large number of extensions installed on their browsers with
various features. These range from facilitating grouping of tabs, managing
passwords, and improving downloads to some related to increasing security.
However,
this can be a risk because through extensions you can leave a record of your
digital footprint when browsing the Internet. It should be noted that this
fingerprint contains a lot of information about users, and therefore it is of
great value to information hunters.
For
example, this fingerprint can reveal users' location, the type of device
they're using to navigate, and the sites they've visited, among other things.
And browser plug-ins can help with all this.
Although
it's worth pointing out that not all Chrome extensions are for data logging.
- How do you know which plugins can spy on you ?
A
group of security researchers has created Extension Fingerprints, which is an
open source script responsible for analyzing the extensions you have installed
on your browser.
The
script contains more than 1000 extensions and the most popular downloads have
been taken into account to compose the list.
Now,
to be able to identify which Chrome extensions can be spying on you, just go to
the project page and it will automatically know which ones are installed in
your computer and whether they are spying on you or not.
In
fact, any extension that appears in the list with a green background could be
spying on you because the system detects when it logs your personal
information. If the green background does not appear, the extension can be
considered safe.