Beware of the Stylish browser extension

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Beware of the Stylish browser extension

Dimitri

1:45 pm on Jul 6, 2018 (gmt 0)

I didn't know where to post it.

"Stylish" browser extension steals all your internet history"
Since January 2017, Stylish has been augmented with bonus spyware that records every single website that I and its 2 million other users visit. Stylish sends our complete browsing activity back to its servers, together with a unique identifier. This allows it’s new owner, SimilarWeb, to connect all of an individual’s actions into a single profile.

[robertheaton.com...]

keyplyr

7:08 pm on Jul 6, 2018 (gmt 0)

Thanks for the heads-up.

I'm not one who loads up browsers with superfluous extensions, but I know some users do.

If you do want to add an extension, I would recommend always getting them from that browser's certified app/extension store, but even then a few malicious agents sneak in I guess, especially when the app is acquired by a different owner.

Dimitri

9:42 pm on Jul 6, 2018 (gmt 0)

I don't use any browser extension. I think it's good that, in the private mode of Chrome, browser extensions are all disabled.

I don't remember which one, but I read a discussion, here at WW, where "you" (someone) was recommending installing this Stylish extension, to detect non clickable ads when using the Adsense ads review center. And lot of members did it. So may be it's time to uninstall it ...

Leosghost

10:02 pm on Jul 6, 2018 (gmt 0)

Wireshark is your friend ( until it gets bought out ) , beware of maya.

tangor

5:12 am on Jul 7, 2018 (gmt 0)

Is there anything which does not report home? (scrape your personal data?)

Heck, turning on your device (since at least 2004 in many cases) calls home SOMEWHERE...

Dimitri

11:38 am on Jul 7, 2018 (gmt 0)

May be it's me, who is paranoiac, but I find it extremely worrisome that browser extensions can access the browsing history, as well as the DOM of the pages visited. I am surprised that no one is minding that much, especially nowadays with all issues and privacy concerns.

Leosghost

6:25 pm on Jul 7, 2018 (gmt 0)

Whether one "minds" , depends upon whether one uses that browser extension ( or others that one has not monitored via wireshark )..I don't use that one ( never had )..the two that I do use..are clean ..I run wireshark in the background* at all times, just in case something becomes "talkative"..I don't run chrome** , nor windows, on anything which is connected to the web, both of them talk far too much to their respective "motherships"..

*FF on linux

**Other browsers based upon the same underlying "engine" are available, but without the "googly goodness" for testing the rendering of one's site(s).
Chrome may be "popular", but as my mother used to say, "just because everybody else is sticking their heads in the gas oven, or jumping off a cliff, doesn't make it a good idea, doesn't mean you should do it too!"..I'd rather be a wily old goat or fox ( more "bearlike" in my case ), than a sheep blindly following the others..