This time it is Facebook to accuse the developers of two extensions for Google Chrome: here’s why, almost are the extensions and what risks those who use them
Chrome extensions can be a great convenience, adding to Google’s browser new features very useful to users. But, at the same time, they can pose a serious danger. Like the two extensions that Facebook has accused: UpVoice and Ads Feed Chrome.
But what does Facebook have to do with Chrome extensions? It does, because the Menlo Park company has denounced in the United States the developers of the two extensions just mentioned because, according to Zuckerberg and his companions, they would be able to steal a lot of personal data of users, such as username and password to enter their Facebook profile. The two extensions are offered to users for quite different purposes, not even so clear and transparent to tell the truth, and for a long time they have remained on the Google store, which has removed them only in the last few hours. Here’s how these two extensions work and why we should remove them all.
Chrome extensions under accusation
UpVoice and Ads Feed Chrome are two Chrome extensions developed by Israeli BrandTotal and American Unimania, respectively.
UpVoice arrived on the Chrome Store in September 2019 and offers gift certificates to users who install certain apps. Ads Feed Chrome arrived on the Chrome Store in November 2019, instead promising users to join a kind of elite that can influence the big global advertising networks.
According to Facebook, however, the two extensions actually aim to rake in sensitive data while the user is browsing Chrome: Facebook, Instagram, Twieet, Pinterest, YouTube and Linkedin profiles, Amazon accounts and much more would be stolen by these extensions.
Facebook presses Google
Before taking BrandTotal and Unimania to court, Facebook repeatedly pressured Google to remove the two extensions from its store.
Today the two extensions are no longer on the Chrome Store, but more than 15,000 users worldwide have already installed them and, at this point, as a precaution they should just remove them.