Google Chrome Annoys Users with Adverts

[reaper]

Spammers keep using a feature in Google Chrome to fill people’s browsers with unwanted advertisements. Google Chrome had a feature that could silently automatically update everything (including extensions). This means that it’s only up to the user to decide whether the owner of an extension is trustworthy.


However, it suddenly turned out that ownership of Chrome extensions can be easily transferred to another party, with users never being informed about this. Perhaps, malware and adware vendors are just showing up at the doors of extension authors, asking to sell their products. After the deal is finished and the ownership of the extension is transferred, the new owners can do whatever they want – for example, release an ad-filled update over Chrome’s update service, sending the adware out to everyone.

Security experts had to admit that it wasn’t necessarily Google’s fault, but vendors were exploiting Google’s extension system to set up a subpar browser. The tech giant admitted that it knows about the problem and promised to change Chrome’s extension policy in June 2014. Google explained that the new policy will require browser extensions to serve a single purpose and this requirement will put an end to the adverts.

So, the users suffering from lots of annoying adverts can disable Chrome extensions, especially the more obscure ones. Some of the most discontent users complain that advertising people screw up people’s lives and are part of the reason the others cannot have nice things.