If you notice that recently your Chrome browser won't give you the live view, that is probably caused the recent Chrome update, which disable the NPAPI plugin by default. We quite recommend Chrome, Firefox and Safari, as they are more stable and better browsers. All the major browers are supported: IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.
![]() They are widely available and some of them are quite helpful, so a lot of people end up using at least several extensions, and sometimes their number on one PC extends to several dozen. Extensions are plenty — there’re hundreds or even thousands of them, for productivity, customization, shopping, games, and more.Almost all popular browsers support extensions — you can find them for Chrome and Chromium, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer, and Edge. Extensions can modify the user interface or add some Web service functionality to your browser.For example, extensions are used to block ads on Web pages, translate text from one language to another, or add pages to a third-party bookmark service such as Evernote or Pocket. What are browser extensions, and why do you need them?A browser extension is something like a plugin for your browser that adds certain functions and features to it. Problem is, of the browsers people commonly use, only Google Chrome prompts the user to grant these permissions (or not) other browsers allow extensions to do anything they want by default, and the user doesn’t have a choice but to accept it.However, even in Chrome that permissions management exists only in theory — in practice, it doesn’t work. That happens mostly with extensions that come from third-party websites, but sometimes — as in cases with Android and Google Play — malware sneaks into official markets as well.For example, security researchers recently uncovered four extensions in the Google Chrome Web Store that posed as innocuous sticky notes apps but in fact were caught generating profits for their creators by secretly clicking on pay-per-click ads.How can an extension can do something like that? Well, to do something, an extension requires permissions. What can go wrong with extensions Malicious extensionsFirst of all, extensions can be downright malicious. ![]() To earn their daily bread, some developers sell anonymized data they’ve collected to third parties. The danger arises because most extensions have the ability to collect a lot of data about users (remember that “read and change all your data on the websites you visit” permission). Not malicious, but dangerousEven extensions that are not malicious can be dangerous. A company bought it and immediately turned it into adware. For example, that’s exactly what happened to Particle, a popular Chrome extension for customizing YouTube that was abandoned by its developers. After the company purchases the extension, it can update it with malicious features, and that update will be pushed to users. Safe Browser For Older That Chrome Doesn'T Support Full Browsing HistoryHowever, a month later the extension was back in stores. The creators of the extension then removed it from all of the other browsers’ stores. Aside from that, the extension collected the full browsing history of its users.A German website claimed that Web of Trust was selling the data it collected to third parties without properly anonymizing it, which resulted in Mozilla’s pulling the extension from its store. The plugin was used to rate websites based on crowdsourced opinion. That happened to Web of Trust — a once-popular plugin for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and other browsers. There, they undergo at least some scrutiny, with security specialists filtering out those that are malicious from head to toe. Install extensions only from official Web stores. Not only do they affect computer performance, but they are also a potential attack vector, so narrow their number to just a few of the most useful. Don’t install too many extensions. I continue to use about a half-dozen of them, and I know for sure that two of them have the aforementioned permission “to read and change.”It might be safer not to use them at all, but that’s inconvenient, so we need a way to use extensions more or less safely. How to use extensions safelyDespite the fact that extensions can be dangerous, some of them are really useful, and that’s why you probably wouldn’t want to abandon them completely. Battery saver for mac google chrome extensionUse a good security solution. If you can’t find a logical explanation for the permissions, it’s probably better not to install that extension. And before installing any extension, it’s always a good idea to look at the permissions it requires and think about whether they match the functionality of the app. That extension might’ve been hijacked or sold. If an extension already installed on your computer requests a new permission, that should immediately raise flags something is probably going on. Our antivirus solutions use a vast database of malicious extensions that is frequently updated — and we discover new malicious Chrome extensions almost every day.
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