Google yanks Chrome add-on that scraped data from 1.2M users

Google has removed a data-scraping Chrome extension from its browser mart after security firms reported that the add-on was silently transferring information about more than a million users.

The Webpage Screenshot extension had been downloaded more than 1.2 million times, according to a cached version of its Chrome Web Store page.

The add-on was not the one with the same name that remains in the add-on store; that extension was created by the U.S.-based 64 Pixels.

Reports by a pair of security firms, including Sweden’s Sentor and Danish vendor Heimdal Security, fingered the add-on in posts Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Researchers from each company found that the extension — which as its name suggests captured screenshots of content displayed by Chrome — sniffed out and then transmitted URLs and tab titles of pages browsed by the user, as well as the user’s location.

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