Google Removes Chrome Extensions Than 500 #Article

Does your favorite Google Extension no longer work? That may be the reason.

Recently Google pulled over 500 Chrome extensions because of malware concerns. The extensions took users to pages where malware and ad ads were featured without users knowing it.

Duo's security team: "Because of their potential for abuse under the general umbrella of helpful applications, browser extensions were considered a weak point for individual protection and privacy. In the case discussed here, Chrome extension developers deliberately created extensions that disfused users ' underlying advertisement features to link browser customers to a order.

Users were being redirected to advertising so that extension developers could profit from the traffic. Upon being asked, users said they were unaware of this, and it didn't make any difference when surfing.

Duo has said about 2 million users downloaded such extensions but it can not be known for sure how many users are affected by removing these extensions.

It is not the first time it has been violated. Ads are embedded in browsing sessions, according to a ZDNet post, but are not noticeable because developers use tricks to hide them. In 2018, even Chrome extensions were found to be used to access login information, cryptocurrencies at mine, and even click fraud.

So, the next time you download an extension, it's worth searching on if it's from a known source.

You can no longer find the extensions in Google's web store, and Google has deactivated them from browsers when marking them as malicious, so that people don't download them anymore.