In extreme cases, extensions can be used as malware to track you or steal personal information. Theoretically they can’t hurt you when the slider is set to make them inactive, but neatness makes me want to have them gone. If they say something about helping you search, or helping you with your mail or with maps or with coupons (shudder), or tracking the weather, or almost anything else that doesn’t sound familiar, look at them with suspicion and think about removing them. Of course, extensions that you have personally chosen on purpose from safe sources are the reason that extensions exist.For example, you might have extensions from Microsoft for Office services, from Cisco for WebEx meetings, or from any number of other companies whose services or programs you have used. Things you’ve installed on purpose or that come from familiar companies are almost certainly safe to leave in place.You can expect to see extensions for Docs, Slides, Sheets, and perhaps a few others from Google. Google installs a number of extensions for Google services.Here are a few categories of extensions that are just fine: There is no reason to feel you need to get to zero extensions. There is nothing wrong with legitimate Chrome extensions! They are helpful and in some cases essential tools. You can see the extensions you have installed in Chrome by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner / More tools / Extensions. Tech journalist Mike Elgan has an interesting list of more than thirty trusted Chrome extensions here, to give you an idea of the range of what’s out there. Power users might have dozens running, carefully chosen to help get work done and manage security and privacy. On my computers, for example, I’ve got icons in Chrome for extensions for LastPass, Acrobat, uBlock Origin ad-blocker, and OneNote. Some work behind the scenes some display an icon in the upper right corner of Chrome. There are thousands of them, many of them in the Chrome Web Store. The only people who think this should be stopped are each and every computer user in the world, and our opinions don’t count when it comes to Making Money.Įxtensions are small programs that customize the Chrome browsing experience. In the eyes of the law, these are good guys. That’s the problem.ĭoesn’t an antivirus program stop this stuff? The advertisers aren’t doing anything illegal. In your mind, they’re dressed in t-shirts and they talk to each in guttural tones and you have this vague feeling that they could be put in jail. The people distributing malware and viruses are anonymous criminals in Russia or Eastern Europe or someplace else a long way from here. They’re executives who wear suits to work and get paid a lot of money and face no consequences for what they’re doing. Any or all of those symptoms might mean you’ve picked up something unwanted, and of course that’s not an exhaustive list. Your browser home page is changed your search results come from an unfamiliar place instead of Google (especially “Ask,” one of the worst offenders) notifications full of ads are popping up from the bottom right corner there are toolbars at the top of the browser that you don’t recognize links on web pages are underlined and ads pop up when your mouse goes over them you type in one website but you’re redirected to another one unfamiliar programs start appearing in the middle of the screen claiming something needs to be done to your computer – oh, and all too often your computer also starts to slow down and programs start crashing. How do you know if there’s adware on your computer? Worse, if you’re not careful you’ll be overrun with notifications on your phone, too. Now the same crap can be run as an extension to Chrome, which doesn’t show up on the list of installed programs in Windows. Adware programs could be uninstalled from Control Panel / Installed Programs. In the old days, we installed adware on our Windows computers when we clicked “yes” on the wrong website popup or as unwanted companions to “free” programs. Adware has started to turn up again, using Chrome extensions and notifications as a way to display annoying ads and muck up the time we spend on our computers and phones – as if we didn’t have enough to worry about.
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