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The world of extensions for Browsers it's as fascinating as dangerous. Despite the Browsers often do their best to avoid hosting malicious extensions, it is not possible to make a totally foolproof selection. And so it happens, unfortunately all too often, that they come found many dangerous Chrome extensions. The problem isn't just Chrome (although it seems less active in checking extensions), it's also the Firefox extensions they can be a danger.
What is an extension?
Extension or add-ons, whatever you want to call it, is an application that you install on your computer Browsers allowing her to do something. For example uBlock, the one to block ads, it's an extension. Chances are you have some installed even if you don't know what we're talking about. And above all there are many, too many people who install them without reading them first permissions required by the extension to work. Because it is important? Let's take a practical example: if you want an extension to translate a page access to the camera or to your position maybe there's something not right. It is in fact a completely unmotivated request for what he has to do. And so on.
Be careful what you install
It is for this reason that there we do not recommend always strongly recommend installing semi-unknown applications and extensions yourself. One of the common ways to install extensions is search on the internet or search for it directly in the relevant stores, in this case in the store Chrome extensions.
Unfortunately, most people don't pay attention to the comments or the author and it's nothing new that behind extensions that promise to work miracles for free there are real hidden ones. risks to your privacy and security.
In this new relationship, the cybersecurity company Awake Security has found at least 111 Chrome Extensions harmful or false, for a total of over 32 million downloads. Some of these extensions, once installed, were capable of take screenshots, steal login credentials And acquire passwords as users typed them.
Found many dangerous Chrome extensions: the list
It is available both the list of all extension IDs (you can download it here), but we also managed to recover the list in a readable mode (Thanks Reddit) with which anyone can check if they have ever installed one of these apps. Find the list, reworked by us, here.
As you can see we are talking about commonly used applications which are fortunately have already been deleted from the Chrome store, let us remember, however, that in the meantime they had been downloaded by over 32 million people.
Most of the extensions found were used to convert files or boasted protection for your PC or yours Browsers. We tell you clearly: you don't need any extension to protect yours Browsers.
At most you may need to protect your privacy but always only use extensions recommended by experts. You can find an example of recommended extensions in our article, but also up PrivacyTools or up PrivateYes.
However, if you need to convert files don't go randomly to search engines hoping to find decent applications. You can for example use this application called File Converter. AND free and Open source and you don't risk anything.
If you have friends who have the bad habit of installing applications and extensions at random, try passing this article on to them! 🤍
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