As the new study of Incogni showed, hundreds of Google Chrome extensions request permits that allow their developers to collect personal and financial data of users, as well as their passwords. According to experts, this is not limited to this. Most of the 1237 analyzed addons collect data about almost everything that users do in the browser. And if the attackers begin to break such extensions, then they will receive a real treasure with information about users.
Incogni research is confirmed by the words of Alexander Valentius, an IB specialist from Surfshark. He advised users to be extremely careful with browser addons that require permission to collect any data.
Returning to the study of Incogni: the company’s specialists found that each second extension of Chrome (48.66%) requests permits that can be risked by user personal data, financial information and passwords.
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The most data collect extensions for writing texts:
80% of them gain access to one point of data;
56% collect the personal data of the user;
33% – location data.
In addition, it is worth paying attention to the addons for online shopping – almost 65% of them collect personal data.
In order not to collect extra data, Valentius gives a simple advice: to use common sense when issuing permits to addons. As an example, he cited the advertising lock – why does he need access to a microphone or file system?