endsofinvention

3 ms·

1. 1.▲
   by endsofinvention 6y ago

   The "mystery" company behind the extensions is Genimous, parent company of Polarity Technologies. Polarity owns the extension referenced in the Awake blog post: https://awakesecurity.com/blog/google-doppelgang
2. 2.▲
   by endsofinvention 7y ago

   Update: Medium has restored the article. The Chinese troll army failed to suppress the news for long. Please see a screenshot of the full article here: https://imgur.com/a/uJxate0 For the data table, go here: https:&#
3. 3.▲
   by endsofinvention 7y ago

   They use Bing for their search results and ads. Microsoft does all the work to onboard advertisers.
4. 4.▲
   by endsofinvention 7y ago

   These extensions do not simply change the default search in the browser. They actively hijack searches on the Google and Bing homepages. Test it yourself in a sandbox. A user who literally types in Google.com or Bing.com into their browser
5. 5.▲
   How a Chinese Company Built a $250M Search Hijacking Empire(medium.com)

   196 points by endsofinvention 7y ago|58 comments
6. 6.▲
   by endsofinvention 7y ago

   Google Ads allow audience targeting based on user interests or affinity groups. This is inferred using past Google searches and pages visited. An advertiser can add as many of these groups as they want to a campaign and get visibility into