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:

  • TA422’s Dedicated Exploitation Loop – the Same Week After Week

    December 5, 2023

    Starting in March 2023, Proofpoint researchers have observed the Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) TA422 readily use patched vulnerabilities to target a variety of organizations in Europe and North America. TA422 overlaps with the aliases APT28, Forest Blizzard, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, and BlueDelta, and is attributed by the United States Intelligence Community to the Russian ...

  • Genetic testing firm 23andMe admits hackers accessed DNA data of 7m users

    December 5, 2023

    The genetic testing company 23andMe has said that nearly 7 million people have been affected by a security breach that put DNA ancestry information into the hands of hackers who broke into the site in early October. On Friday, the California-based company said in a regulatory filing that the personal data of 0.1% of customers – ...

  • Roblox and Twitch provider Tipalti breached by ransomware

    December 5, 2023

    Accounting software provider Tipalti says it is investigating a claim by ransomware group ALPHV that they have gained access to Tipalti’s systems. Tipalti makes software for accounting and payment automation and has some big names among its customers. In what seems to be a typical supply chain attack, ALPHV aka BlackCat are now threatening some Tipalti ...

  • Attack Surface Of The Ubiquiti Connect EV Station

    December 5, 2023

    The Ubiquiti Connect EV Station is a Level 2 charging station for electric vehicles. The EV Station is meant to be managed by a Ubiquiti management platform running the UniFi OS Console, such as the Ubiquiti Dream Machine or Cloud Gateway. Users can also use the iOS or Android UniFi Connect mobile apps to configure the EV ...

  • BlueNoroff: new Trojan attacking macOS users

    December 5, 2023

    Kaspersky researchers recently discovered a new variety of malicious loader that targets macOS, presumably linked to the BlueNoroff APT gang and its ongoing campaign known as RustBucket. The threat actor is known to attack financial organizations, particularly companies, whose activity is in any way related to cryptocurrency, as well as individuals who hold crypto assets or ...

  • Hijackable Go Module Repositories

    December 4, 2023

    The Go module ecosystem is unique because it’s decentralized. Other packaging systems like Pypi or NPM require developers to create accounts to upload their packages. This gives the package platform the ability to moderate users and content. That isn’t the case with Go. Go developers publish modules by pushing their code to source control platforms like ...