this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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"Actors who are asking me to add some tracking code are mostly interested in reselling users' data," Anashkin said. "Actors who want to purchase it outright will stuff it with malware depending on their level of greed: hijacking affiliate links, tampering with search results, showing popups with shady websites, etc."

Anashkin's experience appears to be fairly common. Developers have discussed these solicitations in online forums and several have written blog posts about selling extensions or partnership offers.

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[–] EROLoLICON@kbin.social 213 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It happened to the original uBlock and then the developer made uBlock Origin.

[–] swirle13@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago

Absolute legend

[–] unscholarly_source@lemmy.ca 158 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Been spending the past little while reading the documented offers he gets.

I feel sick to my stomach.

[–] Doombot1@beehaw.org 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wowza. That’s terrible. Thank goodness he hasn’t sold out; I love hoverzoom. If only my freaking work’s IT wouldn’t’ve banned extensions 🙃

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[–] Blackdoomax@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago

I prefer to feel proud that there are still people who don't fall for that and have values. And there always will be.

[–] Snowcano@startrek.website 12 points 2 years ago

Jesus… it is time to seriously re-evaluate and pare back the extensions I use. Ugh.

[–] Slowy@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Wow that is genuinely chilling

[–] celmit@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago

1/25/2021

We'd love to have redacted sponsor Hover Zoom+ in a similar manner to how we're partnering with Dark Reader. See attached for how that partnership has come to life, but we're honestly super flexible on implementation. We'd essentially love to pay you in exchange for helping us drive users to redacted.

So wtf does this mean? Is Dark Reader hammered as of 2021?

[–] lolgcat@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Props to Oleg/hoverzoom for maintaining and updating this list for all to read. It's my first time seeing any document of this kind really. Quiet chilling

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[–] Dougas@lemmy.world 99 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The extension in question is Hover Zoom+ for those who don't want to click the link

[–] Dazza@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What does it do? Like a magnifier for your mouse?

[–] kamen@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If I remember correctly it zooms in images that you point at (quicker than opening the image in a new tab). I've been using Imagus for that.

[–] LUHG_HANI@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Ahh. Is imagus next? But this Dev seem legit. Might use his to be safe now.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 67 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I get these offers almost daily for my Chrome extension, and have done for years. I couldn't do it to the users, but they wouldn't be making the offers if some people weren't accepting.

[–] burkybang@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Exactly. I don’t get them as often as daily, but I have gotten a bunch. I just mark them as spam and move on with my life. Not only would I never sell my hard work to a shady company, but I’d also never willfully harm my user base. It’s like scam calls I suppose. To me, routine scam calls are blatantly obvious, but since I still get them so frequently, they must be fooling some people.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 61 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My coworker had a liver transplant. The few months leading up to it, he was really really sketchy. He said a few things that came off like he was ready to sell company secrets to find some random backalley liver.

Desperate life issues can lead to desperate decisions, like selling out. And it's hard to even be mad in those circumstances.

[–] RivenRise@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wouldn't blame them for selling out for less as much as it would suck for the people who use the product. If I had a family to take care of I would definitely sell out for a big check. Gotta take care of my own first.

[–] Llewellyn@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It sounds fair, but only if we are talking about really important things under "take care of my family" and not another PS5 or a vacation.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 56 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The day he sells out, I'm gonna be like, "you were the chosen one, Anashkin"

[–] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 years ago

"You were to bring visibility to small text, not leave it under ad ID-targeted popups!"

[–] spark947@lemm.ee 55 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They need to name and shame the people reaching out. They keep reacting them.

[–] zwekihoyy@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

this is how you burn potential for future relationships

[–] Numuruzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 2 years ago

Seems like a good deal if it proactively convinces bad actors to stop from reaching out

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago

In other words, "retirement fund" or wasn't offered enough.

[–] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 53 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The alternate universe where Anashkin doesn't fall for the dark side

[–] jherazob@beehaw.org 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

We must ask him his opinions on sand

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 years ago

!starwarsmemes@lemmy.world

[–] RIPandTERROR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 2 points 2 years ago

Shkinwalker

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 51 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The trick is to sell it at a high price and immediately fork. Get paid and fuck off.

Then do it again and again and again. Infinite money glitch. Don't worry about getting sued after a bit you'll be rich enough to be immune from prosecution.

[–] brianorca@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The sell contract would probably include a full license transfer of all copyright, and probably a non-compete clause.

[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

How'd uBlock (Origin) get around that?

[–] yeeliberto@lemmy.ml 23 points 2 years ago

It was a main branch overtake. Not a sellout. He was kicked put of his project.

[–] natanael@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago

Not all transfers include "non competes"

[–] nostalgicgamerz@lemmy.world 44 points 2 years ago

The extension in question btw is Zoom+ for people that don’t want to click

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 33 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

That's why I'm avoiding any extension I know I really don't need.

I've already burned myself once, when Nano Defender sold out and turned into a cookie-stealing malware. By the time it was one of few adblockers that were not being blocked by adblock killers. They've pushed a malware update through the Chrome web store, and started exploiting stolen cookies immediately.

It was a difficult day, where I had to explain to few of my exes that someone hacked their Instagram account due to an ad-blocker I've set up for them when we were dating few years ago.

[–] monobot@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, criminal activity is everywhere, problem is we haven't yet forbid selling of users data.

[–] N4CHEM@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

And it's very unlikely to happen, since our governments are very interested in spying us / buying our data.

[–] Tosonana@lemdit.com 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Great suspender, ublock (not origin) and some other extensions that i cannot think of have fallen to buyouts

[–] kamen@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

Not just extensions, sometimes it's entire software companies. Opera Software got bought a few years back.

[–] alansuspect@aussie.zone 2 points 2 years ago

Damn I'd forgotten all about the great suspender!

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 years ago

And now, please make the mental leap to overly-large Lemmy instances...

[–] ArbiterXero@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

…… if you’re using chrome, Google baked these things in anyways sooo……

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hover Zoom+

Damn I'm using that. I guess the article means he hasn't sold out yet though.

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Reverse switcheroo... this article boosts downloads because people think he has unique integrity in the field, then he sells for double

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

Would be fucked up but clever hah

[–] ChanchoManco@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Do anyone knows if in Firefox is the same situation, or if they take some actions when a extension changes hands?

[–] Spotlight7573@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Looks like Firefox add-ons can be transferred with "[n]o interaction with Mozilla representatives":

https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/add-on-ownership/

You do have to include your source code though if you use any kind of code obfuscation or minimization though:

https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/source-code-submission/