LinkedIn checks for 2953 browser extensions

https://github.com/mdp/linkedin-extension-fingerprinting

35 points · 7 comments · view on lemmy.world

7 Comments

skip0110@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 179d (1 reply)

If I use Firefox, am I immune to this kind of privacy invasion?

skip0110@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 179d

Actually, this was already asked in a cross post: https://lemmy.zip/comment/24461385

Sorry

onlinepersona@programming.dev · 16 pts · 179d

Why the hell is this even possible? Why should a web page have access to the extensions you run?

MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 179d

They couldn’t round it up to 3000? They got shy or what?

RonSijm@programming.dev · 1 pts · 179d (2 replies)

Uhm, doesn't really sound like this could be true. Maybe I'm missing something?

You'd see 2953 get requests in your network tab, right?

And the article says:

LinkedIn silently probes for 2,953 Chrome extensions on every page load.

Surely it would be drastically noticeable if for every page load they do 3k get requests to the chrome store

damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 179d (1 reply)

Dude it asks your browser, not the chrome store.

RonSijm@programming.dev · 4 pts · 179d

Yea, well that was my first though, but then I though - why would chrome even allow any website to just arbitrary check which extensions you have installed.

So I checked the scripts and at this line the script is showing

async function fetchExtensionInfo(extensionId) {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    const url = `https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/$%7BextensionId%7D`;

So I thought maybe they were calling the chromewebstore foreach plugin, and if you have an extension already installed, you get a different response than when you don't - or something.

But I suppose I'm wrong and for some reason a site can just ask the browser internally which plugins are installed