Google Chrome browser extensions allow us to have a great deal of flexibility with the features it provides, which can be relied on many times to meet work needs quickly and easily, accompanied by flexibility, smoothness, and simplicity. This is achieved through extensions developed by Google itself or by external developers working on its behalf, and all these extensions are downloaded from the Google Chrome app and extensions store as everyone knows. As usual! There are always those trying to infiltrate users’ devices, steal data, spy, hack, and engage in unwanted twisted methods with a set of arguments and reasons that never give them the right to do such things. The majority of users do not consider “privacy” seriously and believe that some extensions fulfill their function perfectly, while they are a gateway to access all your personal information, as is the case with most ad-blocking extensions on Google Chrome and others.
Discover what’s going on
It was not until April 17 of the current year 2018, when someone decided to review Chrome’s huge repository, especially in ad-blocking extensions, and search for ways to harm users. The company that did this was “AdGuard,” and found that more than 20 million people use this extension without any idea that it was malicious!
Some of them have names like “Superblock” or “AdRemover for Google Chrome ™” which appear somewhat legitimate. What’s worse, many of them have thousands of reviews and five-star ratings, giving them a sense of credibility due to the illusion of an extension used by many people who were satisfied with their fake experience! The “AdRemover” extension alone has over 10 million users!
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Although these extensions seem to remove ads, they also collect personal data from users and sometimes change the appearance of some websites. AdRemover has prominent access to Chrome and uses jQuery to inject potentially harmful code. Some may not care about this, especially in our Arab world where privacy is not considered at all, realistically or virtually, and the sad thing is that the majority are satisfied! (But dear reader, this information collected about you is not for nothing, but for commercial, profitable, and sometimes political reasons, and may be used against you someday if not today). Everything related to your use and life is private and no one has the right to approach and tamper with it.
Thanks to the efforts of those who discovered these fake extensions, Chrome’s electronic store has so far deleted some of those extensions. However, this does not mean there will not be more in the future!
So how do I protect myself?
This is a difficult question to answer as there is no real way to ensure completely that what you are downloading is not just useless malware. However, we can use the “AdRemover” extension as a starting point. This extension “AdRemover for Google Chrome ™” is supposed to be developed by the AdRemover team, but when we go to the real Ad Remover website (notice the space between the two words), we find a semi-professional site created by some individuals offering a free and paid version of this extension for Chrome so far, the situation is good, but this does not guarantee yet that it is not just another fake program.
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At Better Business Bureau” and known as bbb, we find that Ad Remover with the space between the two words is a registered company with the right phone number and correct address that we found on the official website of the extension. And we also discover that it has been in operation for two years and has an A rating and 19 positive customer reviews.
The Essence of the Issue
If you search online for “AdRemover” (without a space between the words), you will only find a link to the official website of the extension with the space between the two words and a link to the Chrome store to download the extension because Google has deleted the fake extension, but you should pay attention to whether the provider or developer of this extension is the same as the real developer or not! You will find the fake extension in what remains of the search results, which are unofficial sites that uploaded that malicious and fake extension. Therefore, it is preferable to download any extension from its official website after conducting a small search like the one we did to ensure the credibility of the extension or use one of the official browsers that support ad blocking automatically without the need for external extensions or use the new built-in ad blocker in Google Chrome browser, here’s how to enable it and benefit from it.
All the above leads us to one strong point: most creators of deceptive ad-blocking extensions are more lazy than necessary to create entirely new websites. Instead, they will exploit other developers’ identities (e.g., “AdRemover” vs. the real “Ad Remover” and “uBlock Adblocker” instead of the official “uBlock Plus Adblocker”). And others may not even create a website for their extensions (Superblock is a great example of this).
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Therefore, do not download anything before verifying it and its source, developer, and official website with a small search so that you can avoid falling into the trap in the future, dear reader, and do not be lazy, especially when it comes to your privacy, and do not allow anyone to violate and tamper with it as they please! This method of verifying extensions works best to combat fake ad-blocking tools (and perhaps some other types of malware). However, there are other types of malicious extension creators who may go to great lengths to create a legitimate-looking website. This may happen, for example, as part of an investment plan or any other type of deception. Do you have any other tips for identifying fake extensions and programs? Tell us in the comments below this post!
