Massive spying on users of Google's Chrome shows new security weakness

o *Massive spying on users of Google's Chrome shows new security weakness*
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-chrome-exclusive/exclusive-massive-spying-on-users-of-googles-chrome-shows-new-security-weakness-idUSKBN23P0JO
"A newly discovered spyware effort attacked users through 32 million
downloads of extensions to [the] Chrome web browser"

"Google said it removed more than 70 of the malicious add-ons from
its official Chrome Web Store after being alerted by the researchers"

"Most of the free extensions purported to warn users about questionable
websites or convert files from one format to another. Instead, they
siphoned off browsing history and data that provided credentials
for access to internal business tools."

o *Discovery of a Massive, Criminal Surveillance Campaign*
https://awakesecurity.com/blog/the-internets-new-arms-dealers-malicious-domain-registrars/

"To date, there have been at least 32,962,951 downloads of these
malicious extensions - and this only accounts for the extensions
that were live in the Chrome Web Store as of May 2020.
For context, very few extensions have been downloaded
more than 10 million times."

o *32 Million Users Targeted By Stealthy Malware Campaign*
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2020/06/18/new-google-chrome-threat-stealthy-campaign-targets-32-million-users-via-malicious-extensions/

"The spyware worked by monitoring a victim's use of the Chrome browser
while at home and transmitting information"

"Attackers were hiding behind thousands of malicious domains and more
than 15,000 of these were bought from an Israeli registrar called
Galcomm. "
--
Yet another privacy/security reason to avoid browser extensions altogether.
o Discussion of two different privacy-related browser philosophies
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.comp.freeware/H4694--5znY