Affiliate scam: Some Chrome plugins set affiliate links

McAfee has identified five Chrome plugins that covertly set affiliate links in addition to their actual task. This brings the people behind the plugins a lot of money and the users security and privacy losses.

1.4 million downloads

The plug-ins perform various functions and are apparently functional. In addition, however, they unauthorized read the data traffic that runs through the browser. The pages accessed are documented in the process. In addition, a comparison with a database runs automatically. This checks whether the people behind the plugins have affiliate links that are valid for the page in question. If this is the case, a cookie is set, which leads to the fact that henceforth over the Affiliatelink is settled. The operators of the plug-ins thus receive a commission for every purchase made via the respective page.

The five fraud plugins discovered by McAfee have a combined total of around 1.4 million downloads. Specifically, they are the Netflix Party, Netflix Party 2, Full Page Screenshot Capture – Screenshotting, Flip Shoe – Price Tracker Extension and AutoBuy Flash Sales plugins.

Intrusion into privacy

McAfee advises to uninstall the plugins quickly. The reason for this is the compromise of privacy as well as related security. Thus, all users of the plugins must expect that their entire activities on the Internet will be tracked. This data, in turn, can theoretically be used in other ways than for the integration of affiliate links. It is conceivable, for example, that personality profiles could be created that could be used to manipulate behavior, or that further data could be tapped on the websites visited.

In the past, applications have repeatedly been discovered that, in addition to their official function, execute further commands that harm the users. Just a few days ago, for example, an Android app was discovered that pretends to be a PDF reader, but in fact primarily plays out aggressive advertising.