LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

mkw5053

Interesting, so would Safari prevent this? I tried moving to Safari and honestly loved everything except I use my google accounts now for authenticating with to many services and that was a pain compared to chrome.

guluarte

I did that and got logged out of LinkedIn.

nokya

"What is not a question is that a criminal investigation is now open." Good. These companies deserve each and every stone thrown at them, and much more.

ChrisArchitect

[dupe] Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47613981

rapnie

See also "LinkedIn is searching your browser extensions" (812 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47613981

3dsnano

friends, WHEN you are asked to implement something like this at your job, which will you choose: object (& hold ground, loose job) OR comply (& keep job) as practitioners, where do we hold the line between telemetry and surveillance?

maelito

Well, I deleted my Linkedin account and life is better now.

kmeisthax

Wasn't this specifically some lame-ass attempt to combat some click fraud or something these extensions were doing? And aren't these articles specifically coming from the person doing the fraud (which is why they know about the extension scanning)? To be clear, LinkedIn shouldn't be scanning your browser extensions, but still. The ultimate problem is that browser extensions are a powerful malware vector and there's a huge market of people buying little utilities off of solo developers to enshittify them.

ro_bit

Why is my Chrome telling random websites which extensions I have installed?

GodelNumbering

I saw the following from linkedIn this morning > Update to our terms and data use As of November 3, 2025, we are using some of your Linkedin data to improve the content-generating Al that enhances your experience, unless you opt out in your settings. We also updated our terms. See what's new and how to manage your data. Frankly, it is unacceptable to tell a user "oh we have been using your personal data for 5 months already and will continue to do so unless you explicitly opt out". Are there any transparent alternatives to LinkedIn (not the trust me bro variant)?

echelon

Can someone here please create a LinkedIn replacement for developers that 1. Doesn't have the spam 2. That doesn't look like it's from 2008 3. That only developers / engineers / tech folks can join 4. Doesn't try to log into your email to steal your contact list 5. That doesn't track you or your extensions / browser fingerprint 6. That doesn't have a bunch of fake "linkedinmaxxing" garbage content 7. that doesn't have marketers and recruiters, etc. 8. ...

StilesCrisis

Is this a hallucination? I can't find this quote anywhere else. > According to browsergate, Milinda Lakkam confirmed this under oath, saying, "LinkedIn took action against users who had specific extensions installed."

stevenicr

and, recently while trying to decipher why computer was at 98% memory and 65% cpu one of the culprits is https://li.protechts.net taking 2GB ram and 8% cpu. DDG searches say this is something for linkedin. - I had two tabs for linkedin open but left behind as I opened other tabs to research. So I had not reopened these tabs in over 9 hours and they are still just humming along sucking down almost 10% of cpu and a couple gigs of ram for what? This is firefox with ublock origin - quick searches saw malwarebytes browser guard considered it (protechts.net) malware for a bit and then took it off the list of things it blocked / warned about. Not sure this is related to the scan mentioned, but it may be related to the overall concerns about data and unknown usage of resources. I'm considering blocking this at the dns hosts level at this point. repost of my comment 28 days ago

gedy

LinkedIn without the news/post feed would be fine

charcircuit

This is pure speculation. It is a million times more likely that this data is strictly used to combat scraping and fraud.

flenserboy

Fun to have to spin up a whole VM just to use a particular website!

dctoedt

Seems to do this in Microsoft Edge, too.* * I use Edge bcs of the vertical tabs — Safari's equivalent is a poor substitute. Firefox didn't seem to have vertical tabs last time I checked.

0xAstro

now it makes sense with the 1000s of spammy not found requests to chrome extensions i was seeing on linkedin and had claude code debug.

0xAstro

Now the 1000s of spammy chrome web extension requests when I opened LinkedIn makes sense