New “BrowserGate” report claims LinkedIn secretly scans user browsers for installed extensions and collects device data


A new report is alleging LinkedIn uses hidden JavaScript to scan its visitors’ browsers for installed extensions, looks for those that compete with its own sales tools, and then twists its users’ arms until they stop using those and pick LinkedIn’s products, instead.

However the social network says this is a smear campaign run by a disgruntled extensions developer who lost a court battle in Germany. An “association of commercial LinkedIn users” called Fairlinked e.V published a report detailing “BrowserGate” – claiming LinkedIn scans for thousands of browser extensions and ties the results to identifiable user profiles – and by scanning, LinkedIn harvests personal and corporate information.

Read more…
Source: TechRadar News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Security Update Released for CrushFTP

    March 28, 2025

      A vulnerability has been disclosed in CrushFTP, a file server supporting standard secure file transfer protocols, after being discovered by a security researcher. The vulnerability designated as CVE-2025-2825 is a critical ‘improper authentication’ vulnerability with a CVSSv3 score of 9.8. Successful exploitation could allow an unauthenticated attacker to craft remote and unauthenticated HTTP requests to CrushFTP, ...

  • Critical Strapi Vulnerability Allows RCE via Server-Side Template Injection

    March 27, 2025

    SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team became aware of the threat CVE-2023-22621, assessed its impact and developed mitigation measures for this vulnerability. CVE-2023-22621 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting Strapi versions 3.0.0 through 4.5.5. The flaw permits authenticated Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI), allowing a remote attacker with access to the Strapi admin panel to bypass validation checks ...

  • Ukraine state railway says online services partially restored after cyber attack

    March 27, 2025

    Ukraine’s state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia, the country’s largest carrier, has partially restored online services after a large-scale cyber attack hit passenger and freight transport systems, the company said on Thursday. An outage was first reported on Sunday when the rail company notified passengers about a failure in its IT system and told them to buy tickets on ...

  • UK MoD probes security breach after documents relating to Catterick Garrison found dumped in street

    March 26, 2025

    The Ministry of Defence is investigating after a cache of documents containing sensitive military information was found discarded in the street. The papers, some marked “official – sensitive”, were discovered spilling out of a black bin bag in the Scotswood area of Newcastle on March 16 . The BBC reported that they include details about soldiers’ ...

  • UK supermarket Morrisons’ sales growth slows after cyber attack

    March 26, 2025

    British supermarket group Morrisons’ sales growth slowed in its first quarter, reflecting a previously flagged cyber attack at its technology provider which disrupted its operations. The UK’s fifth largest grocer, which has been owned by U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice since 2021, said on Wednesday its like-for-like sales rose 2.1% in its quarter ...

  • Operation ForumTroll: APT attack with Google Chrome zero-day exploit chain

    March 25, 2025

    In mid-March 2025, Kaspersky technologies detected a wave of infections by previously unknown and highly sophisticated malware. In all cases, infection occurred immediately after the victim clicked on a link in a phishing email, and the attackers’ website was opened using the Google Chrome web browser. No further action was required to become infected. All malicious ...