extension

Google has confirmed it will limit the way ad blockers work in Chrome next year. Critics have called it a conflict of interests. The changes are to extensions, the third-party tools that users can add to Chrome to improve their web browsing ... experience. While extensions can do anything from translate web pages to make it easier to browse Netflix, ad blockers are some of the most popular types of extension. Extensions for Chrome must follow a specification called Manifest. Many current extensions use version 2 of this specification, but all newly added ones must use version 3. Google now says ... (view more)

Infopackets Readers Sam G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently switched from Firefox to Chrome, and was wondering if you can help me. Whenever I download a specific file type, I want it to save to a particular folder. For example, I have a Usenet ... account and I use it to download files off of Usenet servers. I want my Usenet .NZB files (similar to .torrent files) saved to S:\NZB instead of my default download folder, because I use my .NZBs files on another machine. When I use Firefox to download .nzb files, it remembers that I always want to save to S:\NZB, but all my other downloads go to my ... (view more)

Two ad-blocking Chrome extensions have been removed from distribution after they were altered to collect user data. People who've already installed Nano Adblocker and Nano Defender should now remove the tools. Instructions for removal are near the ... end of the article. Both Nano Adblocker and Nano Defender started out as legitimate extensions which users could integrate into the Chrome browser to block ads. They had a combined total of 250,000 downloads, and ironically that success seems to be what ended up causing the problems. New Owners Manipulate Extension The original developer sold the ... (view more)

Mozilla has removed security tools from Avast and AVG from the Firefox extension store. It says the tools are collecting too much personal data about users. The extensions are third-party tools for the Firefox browser that add extra functionality to ... web browsing. In this case, the advertised purposes include highlighting and blocking malware that could be downloaded, and warning users when a page may be part of a phishing attack. That's where a user is tricked into typing in personal details into what they think is a legitimate site. Mozilla acted after online posts by Wladimir Palant, who ... (view more)

Password manager LastPass has suffered an embarrassing security glitch that reveals a user's last used password, though some security experts argue that pulling off the exploit would have been difficult at best. The purpose of LastPass is to solve ... the problem of people having too many passwords to remember, but not wanting to reuse passwords across multiple sites. Once somebody signs up to LastPass, they create a single master password which is completely secret. Even LastPass itself doesn't store this password, so if a user forgets it, they are out of luck. The master password then stores ... (view more)

Google is taking several more steps to make browser extensions safer. It's giving users more control and cracking down on some common rogue practices. The changes are to Chrome's extensions. Also known as add-ons with some browsers, extensions are ... third-party tools designed to improve the online experience using a web browser. For example, an Amazon extension lets users send text on a web page (such as a lengthy article) straight to their Kindle e-reader as a document with one click. By nature, extensions need some degree of access to and control over Chrome itself, which sometimes means the ... (view more)

Google is banning Chrome browser tools that harness a computer's power to 'mine' virtual online currencies for a third party. It seems Google gave up trying to distinguish between different levels of legitimacy in such set-ups. The whole concept of ... "cryptomining" using a web browser may seem baffling to many users. In the simplest terms, the cryptomining program could automatically load when visiting a particular web page or would always remain active (if it was through a browser extension). The users' computer would then "mine" (using mathematical equations) until a ... (view more)

Facebook users have been warned to watch out for bogus links in messages that appear to be from friends. While Facebook appears to be on top of the problem for now, it's an approach that could lead to personal data being siphoned off, or computers ... locked. The problem was highlighted by security researcher Bart Parys who became aware of the problem this weekend after a tip-off from a friend. It involves Facebook messages which appear to consist only of an image but are actually a type of file called SVG (scalable vector graphics). 'YouTube' Video Next Step In Scam Normally such ... (view more)

A popular antivirus browser extension has been labeled as a security risk by Google. The tool in question is called Web TuneUp and is a browser extension by AVG; in this case, the problem involves Web TuneUp and the Chrome Browser, but the threat ... itself likely includes other browsers as well. Web TuneUp works by validating links that appear on a web browser page, such as on a search engine results list. It then warns the user if a link points to a page that could compromise security. It's arguably overkill, given that Chrome includes similar tools - plus the fact that Google itself ... (view more)