3 ms·

Extensions and VPNs have been doing this for years, it's not a secret. Where I worked we paid a proxy/scraping company that also offered 'stealth' scraping usi

Extensions and VPNs have been doing this for years, it's not a secret. Where I worked we paid a proxy/scraping company that also offered 'stealth' scraping using residential IPs. They got those IPs using techniques like these extensions. Chrome web store changed its policy years ago to prohibit these with the rationale that an extension should have a single purpose. Apparently their scanning tools aren't enforcing the policy strictly enough.

mmsc 1y ago
Indeed, it's not a secret and it's not just extensions and VPNs, but everything you could imagine. Lots of applications that advertise themselves as "ways to make money for your unused internet bandwidth" are available which do this -- openly. This type of software is bundled into system executables as well - just like the "free antivirus and browser toolbars" of yesterday, these are the new bundled software. If a company has an "internal network" (lol) that consists of security that can be described as Swiss cheese, then this stuff is a massive gap there.
josephg 1y ago
> Extensions and VPNs have been doing this for years, it's not a secret. Its not a secret in the industry, but I bet money that most of your users have no idea this is happening. They almost certainly wouldn't install those web extensions if this information was widely known. As a rule of thumb, if you need to do something in secret to get away with it, its probably not ethical.
- paulryanrogers 1y ago
  It's supposed to be in the terms of service. Otherwise it is indeed fraud/abuse. Though I'd agree that most users don't read the fine print.
  - josephg 1y ago
    This sort of behaviour isn’t allowed on the extension store at all. There’s no exception for extensions which tell users all their misdeeds in the fine print.

3 ms·

Extensions and VPNs have been doing this for years, it's not a secret. Where I worked we paid a proxy/scraping company that also offered 'stealth' scraping usi

by paulryanrogers 1y ago

mmsc 1y ago
Indeed, it's not a secret and it's not just extensions and VPNs, but everything you could imagine. Lots of applications that advertise themselves as "ways to make money for your unused internet bandwidth" are available which do this -- openly. This type of software is bundled into system executables as well - just like the "free antivirus and browser toolbars" of yesterday, these are the new bundled software. If a company has an "internal network" (lol) that consists of security that can be described as Swiss cheese, then this stuff is a massive gap there.
josephg 1y ago
> Extensions and VPNs have been doing this for years, it's not a secret. Its not a secret in the industry, but I bet money that most of your users have no idea this is happening. They almost certainly wouldn't install those web extensions if this information was widely known. As a rule of thumb, if you need to do something in secret to get away with it, its probably not ethical.
- paulryanrogers 1y ago
  It's supposed to be in the terms of service. Otherwise it is indeed fraud/abuse. Though I'd agree that most users don't read the fine print.
  - josephg 1y ago
    This sort of behaviour isn’t allowed on the extension store at all. There’s no exception for extensions which tell users all their misdeeds in the fine print.