Where there's Free involved there's Doubt! : 5ubliminal's TellinYa

I do not Trust FREE!

Anyone will say, Yo dude! You give away free stuff here!

Indeed but not in compiled form. You get to see what you download from here, but what do you see when it is compiled?

And I want to talk to you about browser extensions.

A while ago I coded an extension …

And the porpouse of this extension was made clear by the client: override affiliate IDs and Google AdSense IDs in pages the view visits and add extra results in Search Engine Results Pages. So I know first hand what Browser Extensions are supposed to do.

They all offer something somhow valuable, but the truth is most give with one hand and take back with five (or more). They get first-hand access on browser and can do anything to the pages.

What are the security hazards?

First thing's first! Credit cards, oh yeahhh! Real easy to snatch them with a Browser Extension.

Logins all around. It's a risk for your affiliate logins to be stolen and near paytime to have your bank accounts changed on your affiliate accounts.

Contact informations and emails. Everytime you login with an email it can drift somewhere else also. Think spam and think big. any email that leaks will reach at least 10 spammers right away. Prepare for the biblical deluge.

Navigation patterns. They learn what you visit and they hit you with the appropriate ads. When you see ads poping out of nowhere on your browser consider looking into your loaded extensions.

… and much more dirty stuff you don't wanna know about!

Be very careful with free!

I have 4 browsers installed and all the toolbars are added on FireFox. I use Opera 99.9% of the time and I only use FireFox when I need any toolbar and no risk is involved.

Free implies no guarantees and any free product disclaimer states this in capital letters. It's done for a reason. They stay safe whatever they do! Commercial software on the other hand has to meet certain demands which paying customers have in both functionality and security. Go commercial when sensitive data is involved or only work with the really popular ones!

Be paranoid about sensitive informations and you'll get to live more. And below is my favourite movie of all times! If you have not seen this check the cover and see it. It's a must!
Conspiracy Theory - Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts
Conspiracy Theory

Are all extensions bad?

I don't know as I don't usually use them. I never use them with sensitive info and it's pointless in checking them with network sniffers. I ain't got time for these stuff. But, as I said, my coder experience taught me a lot and many scandals broke over browser extension and bundled software that interfered with browsing experience.

Aaron Wall made me write this!

Actually it all started after using Aaron Wall's SEO FireFox Extension. I don't state that his extension is fishy but if you check the prices he charges for SEO services ($1.200 for 1 hour and a half with him on the phone - wtf is this the hottest line?) I imagine that such an extension has one or both of the two porpouses: advertise himself, do other stuff…

And this extension make a lot of automated queries to Google. Make sure your site won't stand out as a server hammer as you might have problems. When you load a Google search the extension checks all the links in page. 100 queries (I use 100 results) in few seconds … not so great. If Google associates you IP with a WebMasterTools account … I don't know and I don't wanna find out!

Regards,
And if I'm wrong slap me with your opinion in the form below!

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" Where there's Free involved there's Doubt! : 5ubliminal's TellinYa "