One of the largest corporate espionage and data breach scandals in digital history': New "BrowserGate" report claims LinkedIn secretly scans user browsers for installed extensions and collects device data

Date:
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:05:00 +0000

Description:
LinkedIn calls it a smear campaign, but does not deny scanning people's browsers for extensions.

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now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Report alleges LinkedIn scans browsers for extensions Claims data used against competitors in BrowserGate LinkedIn
denies misuse, calls accusations a smear campaign A new report is alleging LinkedIn uses hidden JavaScript to scan its visitors browsers for installed extensions, looks for those that compete with its own sales tools, and then twists its users arms until they stop using those and pick LinkedIns
products, instead.

However the social network says this is a smear campaign run by a disgruntled extensions developer who lost a court battle in Germany. An association of commercial LinkedIn users called Fairlinked e.V published a report detailing BrowserGate - claiming LinkedIn scans for thousands of browser extensions and ties the results to identifiable user profiles - and by scanning, LinkedIn harvests personal and corporate information. Article continues below You may like Hackers hijack LinkedIn comments to spread malware - here's what to look out for Fake Chrome AI extensions targeted over 300,000 users to steal
emails, personal data and more - here's what we know More malicious browser extensions uncovered - Chrome, Firefox, and Edge all affected Scans
confirmed, motives not "LinkedIn scans for over 200 products that directly compete with its own sales tools, including Apollo, Lusha, and ZoomInfo. Because LinkedIn knows each user's employer, it can map which companies use which competitor products. It is extracting the customer lists of thousands
of software companies from their users' browsers without anyone's knowledge,' the report states.

"Then it uses what it finds. LinkedIn has already sent enforcement threats to users of third-party tools, using data obtained through this covert scanning to identify its targets."

Apparently, the scanning part is true - BleepingComputer ran an independent test and saw a JavaScript that checked for exactly 6,236 browser extensions. The publication says that many of the extensions scanned are related to LinkedIn, but some have seemingly unrelated features - language and grammar extensions, tools for tax professionals, and others.

The script also collects a wide range of browser and device data, including CPU core count, available memory, screen resolution, timezone, language settings, battery status, audio information, and storage features, BleepingComputer reports. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features
and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

In response to the accusations, LinkedIn says it does scan for extensions,
but it does so to prevent users from violating the sites terms of use. It
also claims BrowserGates author is running a smear campaign after losing a court battle in Germany. Protecting user privacy? Or violating it? LinkedIn says it's actually protecting user privacy (Image credit: Shutterstock) "The claims made on the website linked here are plain wrong. The person behind
them is subject to an account restriction for scraping and other violations
of LinkedIn's Terms of Service, LinkedIn response says.

To protect the privacy of our members, their data, and to ensure site stability, we do look for extensions that scrape data without members'
consent or otherwise violate LinkedIn's Terms of Service. What to read next Malicious Microsoft VSCode AI extensions might have hit over 1.5 million
users LexisNexis confirms data breach, says hackers hit customer and business info These Chrome extensions spoof Workday, NetSuite, and others to trick victims - here's what to look for

Heres why: some extensions have static resources (images, javascript) available to inject into our webpages. We can detect the presence of these extensions by checking if that static resource URL exists. This detection is visible inside the Chrome developer console. We use this data to determine which extensions violate our terms, to inform and improve our technical defenses, and to understand why a member account might be fetching an inordinate amount of other members' data, which at scale, impacts site stability. We do not use this data to infer sensitive information about members.

For additional context, in retaliation for this website owner's account restriction, they attempted to obtain an injunction in Germany, alleging LinkedIn had violated various laws. The court ruled against them and found their claims against LinkedIn had no merit, and in fact, this individual's
own data practices ran afoul of the law.

Unfortunately, this is a case of an individual who lost in the court of law but is seeking to re-litigate in the court of public opinion without regard for accuracy."

Apparently, the BrowserGates author built a browser extension called Teamfluence which, according to LinkedIn, violated the sites terms of use,
for automated data collection. The best antivirus for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/one-of-the-largest-corporate-espionage- and-data-breach-scandals-in-digital-history-new-browsergate-report-claims-link edin-secretly-scans-user-browsers-for-installed-extensions-and-collects-device -data


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