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:

  • Scammers target Italian tycoons using defense minister’s AI-generated voice

    February 10, 2025

    Scammers target Italian tycoons using defense minister’s AI-generated voice on OpenAI Voice Engine Scammers used AI-generated voice of Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto in an atempts to steal millions of dollars from Italian business tycoons, according to reports. Crosetto said last Thursday on X that someone was using his name and his artificially generated voice to ...

  • Thai-Swiss-US Operation Nets Hackers Behind 1,000+ Cyber Attacks

    February 10, 2025

    Thai police arrested four European hackers in Phuket who allegedly stole $16 million through ransomware attacks affecting over 1,000 victims worldwide. The suspects, wanted by Swiss and US authorities, were caught in coordinated raids across four locations. Officers from Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, led by Police Lieutenant General Trairong Phiwphan, conducted “Operation PHOBOS AETOR” in Phuket ...

  • 20 million OpenAI accounts offered for sale

    February 7, 2025

    A cybercriminal acting under the moniker “emirking” offered 20 million OpenAI user login credentials this week, sharing what appeared to be samples of the stolen data itself. A translation of the Russian statement by the poster says: “When I realized that OpenAI might have to verify accounts in bulk, I understood that my password wouldn’t stay ...

  • Engineer IMI becomes latest British firm to be hit by cyber attack

    February 6, 2025

    Engineering group IMI confirmed it had been hit by a cyber attack just a week after rival Smiths Group said hackers had gained access to its global systems. Birmingham-headquartered IMI declined to disclose what data had been accessed in the attack, but systems in a number of its locations globally are understood to have been hit. IMI ...

  • Router maker Zyxel tells customers to replace vulnerable hardware exploited by hackers

    February 5, 2025

    Taiwanese hardware maker Zyxel says it has no plans to release a patch for two actively exploited vulnerabilities affecting potentially thousands of customers. Threat intelligence startup GreyNoise warned late last month that a critical-rated zero-day vulnerability impacting Zyxel routers was being actively exploited. GreyNoise said the flaws allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands on affected devices, ...

  • Analyzing ELF/Sshdinjector.A!tr with a Human and Artificial Analyst

    February 4, 2025

    ELF/Sshdinjector.A!tr is a collection of malware that can be injected into the SSH daemon. Samples of this malware collection surfaced around mid-November 2024. While Fortinet researchers have a good amount of threat intelligence on them (e.g., they are attributed to the DaggerFly espionage group and were used during the Lunar Peek campaign against network appliances), nobody ...