Perhaps you’ve overheard colleagues raving about how a browser extension has made their online life easier…or maybe you’ve never even heard the term. Either way, even though they’ve been around for many years, browser extensions may remain a mystery to you, as they do to many Internet users.
That’s not a good thing, warns technology expert Kim Komando, whose weekly radio program airs on more than 420 stations. “There are over 180,000 extensions available in the Chrome Web Store alone,” she says. “People use them without thinking twice. Most people have no idea what they’ve installed, who built it or what it’s doing in the background. They treat extensions like harmless little helpers. Some are…but some absolutely are not.”
Bottom Line Personal interviewed Komando to demystify these tools and help you make the most of them safely …
What Is a Browser Extension?
“Think of a browser extension like an app for your web browser,” says Komando. It’s a small software add-on that sits inside Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge and changes or adds to what your browser can do. Browser extensions sometimes are called plug-ins, add-ons or browser apps. A browser extension can be installed in about 30 seconds…shows up as a little icon near your address bar…and starts working immediately.
How Do Browser Extensions Work?
When you install an extension, you’re essentially giving a piece of software permission to run inside your browser every time you use that browser. The browser extension can see the pages you visit, read what you type and, in some cases, modify what appears on your screen. Most major extensions work across the Chrome, Firefox and ND Edge browsers, but Safari operates differently on Apple devices and has its own extension library.
Your smartphone and tablet are a different story. Most extensions don’t carry over to a phone or tablet browser unless you’re using a desktop-style browser such as Firefox for Android. iPads are the exception, since Safari on iPad supports many of the same extensions you would use on a Mac.
Common Uses and Benefits of Browser Extensions
“Browser extensions can genuinely make your browsing faster, safer and less annoying,” Komando says, “and there are more of them than most people realize.” Types of browser extensions…
Productivity extensions such as Grammarly check your writing for grammar and spelling errors in real time across every website. Honey and Capital One Shopping automatically find coupon codes at checkout.
Security extensions like uBlock Origin block ads and trackers. Password managers like NordPass fill in your credentials so you’re not reusing weak passwords.
Accessibility extensions can increase font sizes, change contrast or read pages aloud for people with vision difficulties. Examples: Read Aloud, which reads any web page out loud in a natural voice, and BeeLine Reader, which adds a subtle color gradient to text to help people with low vision or dyslexia track lines without losing their place.
Customization extensions let you change the look of websites, block distracting content or force dark mode everywhere. (Dark mode flips a site’s bright-white background to a dark one with light-colored text. It cuts glare, is easier on your eyes at night and even can save battery life on phones and laptops with OLED screens.) An extension like Dark Reader forces it on across the whole web. There even are extensions that summarize articles using artificial intelligence (AI), translate pages instantly or let you take full-page screenshots. For AI summaries, Sider or Glasp will boil a long article down to the key points in seconds. For translation, DeepL or the Google Translate extension converts a whole page on the spot. For screenshots, GoFullPage captures the entire page top to bottom, not just the slice you can see
Security and Privacy Risks
“This is where I slow people down,” Komando says. “Extensions are one of the most overlooked security risks on any computer.”
When you install an extension, you’re granting it certain permissions. Some need to read only one website but request access to everything you do on every website…forever. That includes your banking log-ins, e-mail, credit card numbers at checkout…everything. To get an idea of potential browser extension security risks, consider the following three scenarios…
Scenario one: You install a free VPN (virtual private network) extension that you found in a Google search. It works fine, but buried in its browser extension permissions is the ability you gave it to log every site you visit and sell that data to advertisers. Many Internet users would have no idea this might be happening.
Scenario two: A popular extension gets acquired by a company you’ve never heard of. The new owners push an update that adds data collection, and just like that, the extension that you’ve trusted for years has begun working against you.
Scenario three: A malicious extension mimics a real one with a nearly identical name and icon. You install the fake, and it captures all your passwords.
According to the Federal Trade Commission and cybersecurity researchers, all three of these scenarios have happened to real people. Malicious browser extensions can also inject ads into pages, redirect your searches or slow your browser to a crawl by running excessive background processes.
How to Use Browser Extensions Safely
That all sounds very scary, but there are ways to reap the benefits of browser extensions while staying safe. It just requires a little effort on your part.
Consider the source. Only install extensions from official stores, meaning the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-Ons or the Safari Extensions library. Never install one from a random website that asks you to drag a file into your browser.
Do your due diligence. Read the permissions before you click the button to install the extension. “If a simple coupon-finder is asking for access to all your data on all websites,” Komando says, “that’s a red flag. Don’t install it.”
Keep track of your extensions. Periodically perform an audit of what you already have installed. How to do it: Open your browser settings, and look at your extensions list. Delete anything you don’t recognize or haven’t used in months. Fewer extensions means less risk for attack. But keep in mind—any information the extension has already collected has already gone to wherever it was sent, so deleting the extension doesn’t claw that data back. And if your browser syncs across devices, you’ll want to remove it on each device, and any account you created through the extension still lives on that company’s servers until you delete it there too.
Don’t wander off the beaten path. Stick to popular browser extensions with large user counts and recent updates. To find a browser’s user count: When you’re looking at an extension in the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons or Edge Add-ons, the page shows the user count (such as “10,000,000 users”)…the star rating…the number of reviews…and a “Last updated” date. Check that page before you hit Add or Install. Your installed-extensions list won’t show those numbers, only the store will. “An extension with 50 reviews that hasn’t been updated in two years should be considered a risk,” says Komando.
Don’t neglect your browser. Be sure to keep your browsers updated by restarting them every few days—close all the browser’s windows and open it again. Also, click “update” when you see it…and don’t ignore update prompts for weeks. Browser makers patch security vulnerabilities regularly, and those patches include protection from extension exploits.
To Remove a Browser Extension
If you no longer want an extension, it’s generally easy to get rid of it. How to do it will depend on which browser you use…
Google Chrome: In the upper right of the Google Chrome window, click the icon that looks like three vertical dots. Select “Extensions” from the menu that appears, then “Manage Extensions.” You’ll find a “Remove” option for each extension installed.
Mozilla Firefox: Click the icon that looks like three stacked horizontal lines. Choose “Add-ons and Themes,” then choose “Extensions.” Select “Remove” beside the unwanted extension.
Microsoft Edge: Click on the icon that looks like three horizontal dots. From the menu, choose “Extensions” and then “Manage extensions.” In the list of extensions, select the unwanted ones and click “Remove.”
Safari (Mac): Go to Safari, then choose “Settings,” followed by “Extensions.” Each extension you have installed will have an “Uninstall” option beside it.
Final word of warning: When you remove a browser extension, the data it has already collected doesn’t disappear. It has already gone to wherever it went. That’s why it’s better to be cautious upfront rather than to clean up later. “Treat a browser extension like a stranger asking to read every letter you ever write,” says Komando. “Most strangers have good intentions. But you should still know who you’re letting in.”
Bottom Line Personal interviewed consumer technology expert Kim Komando, who hosts the nation’s largest weekend talk radio show on technology, The Kim Komando Show. Get Kim’s free daily newsletter at GetKim.com. Komando.com
