These Popular Browser Extensions Are Leaking Your Full Web History On Purpose (https://www.howtogeek.com/fyi/these-popular-browser-extensions-are-leaking-your-full-web-history-on-purpose/)by
Justin Pot (https://www.howtogeek.com/author/justinpot/) on July 25th, 2018
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Browser extensions and phone apps used by a combined 11 million people are recording users' complete browsing history, a clear violation of privacy.
RELATED: Browser Extensions Are a Privacy Nightmare: Stop Using So Many of Them (https://www.howtogeek.com/188346/why-browser-extensions-can-be-dangerous-and-how-to-protect-yourself/)
The tools, all owned by Blue Star Labs, are free. Here's a list:
- Block Site, an Android app and Chrome/Firefox extension used by 1.6 million people.
- Poper Blocker, a Chrome/Firefox extension used by 2.3 million people.
- CrxMouse, a Chrome extension used by 410,000 people.
- Several popular Android apps including Speed BOOSTER, Battery Saver, AppLock, and Clean Droid.
- AdblockPrime for iOS.
If you use any of these apps we recommend you uninstall them. Andrey Meshkov, writing for Ad Guard (https://adguard.com/en/blog/big-star-labs-spyware/), outlined how all of these apps are collecting full browser history, and pointed out why this might be compromising, despite the information supposedly being anonymized:
QuoteThere are numerous ways of discovering your real identity from observing your browsing history. It can be straightforward, for instance, there is no ambiguity in who can visit this page: https://analytics.twitter.com/user/aymeshkov/tweets (https://analytics.twitter.com/user/aymeshkov/tweets). Even if you do not happen to visit such pages, there is still a high chance of exposing your real identity.
Check out the full post (https://adguard.com/en/blog/big-star-labs-spyware/) for more information.
Maybe you're okay with giving all of your browsing history to a company you've heard of in exchange for a free application. You're certainly not the first person to feel that way. But we recommend you uninstall browser extensions you're not using (https://www.howtogeek.com/240090/how-to-uninstall-extensions-in-chrome-firefox-and-other-browsers/), just in case.