Google Chrome is a browser where you can add on different plugins that perform different actions. Adding an extension to the browser is similar to installing a program onto your computer. For example, if you want to use Honey (the service that finds and applies promo codes to your purchases), you’ll need to install the Honey extension.
Now, people can track you through those extensions
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer may be dead, but Google is dealing with its own tragedy. According to BleepingComputer, a researcher with the alias “z0ccc” created a site that can use the users’ installed extensions to build a profile of the users. This profile is called a fingerprint, and it can be used to find out information about the user and their computer. The fingerprint can consist of information like your computer’s GPU, installed Windows applications, screen resolution, installed fonts, and the hardware configuration. Zoccc used this website to test over 1,000 Chrome extensions. Several popular extensions proved useful for constructing a fingerprint. Some of them include Honey, Adobe, Grammarly, and Rakuten. If you’re into web building, you can check out Zoccc’s Github to discover more. It’s full of all sorts of important information on the subject.
In Other Browser News: Internet Explorer Is Officially Dead
Not too long ago, Microsoft announced that it dropped all support for Internet Explorer on Windows 10. This means that there are no more user versions of Windows getting Internet Explorer. This effectively kills off the application and ends the nearly 30-year existence of the program.