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Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

browsermcp.io

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Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#201

Post by econ »

metadat wrote: post #197
EGreg wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So ... pretty much none Keep in mind, extensions can update themselves at any time, including when they're bought out by someone else. In fact, I bet that's a huge draw... imagine buying an extension that "can read and modify data on all your websites" and then pushing an update that, oh I dunno, exfiltrates everyone's passwords from their gmail. How would most people even catch that? DO NOT have any extensions runni…

It would be interesting if you could easily install browser extensions via a source repository URL (e.g. GitHub, or any git URL), then at least there would be more transparency about who/what you are trusting by installing it. Blindly trusting a mostly anonymous chrome store "install" button seems insane, since they don't do any significant policing. Wasn't the promise of safety one of the primary reasons Google star…

Like user.script/grease monkey. It use to be that you could publish a reasonably large script and someone would review it. Even better was to start out simple then gradually update it so that existing users can continue reviewing by looking at the changes.

I think the permission system should be much more complicated so that the user gets a prompt that explains what is needed and why.

Furthermore there should be [paid] independent reviewers to sign off on extensions. This adds a lot of credibility, specially to a first time publication without users. That would also give app stores someone to talk to before deleting something. Nefarious actors working for app stores can have their credibility questioned.

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#203

Post by econ »

SkyBelow wrote: post #83
bhouston wrote: post #44

So the website claims: "Avoids bot detection and CAPTCHAs by using your real browser fingerprint." Yeah, not really. I've used a similar system a few weeks back (one I wrote myself), having AI control my browser using my logged in session, and I started to get Captcha's during my human sessions in the browser and eventually I got blocked from a bunch of websites. Now that I've stopped using my browser session in that…

What do you think they might be looking for that could be detected pretty quickly? I'm wondering if it is something like they can track mouse movement and calculate when a mouse is moving too cleanly, so adding some more human like noise to the mouse movement can better bypass the system. Others have mentioned doing too many actions too fast, but what about potential timing between actions. Even if every click isn't…

Have a lot of small things count towards the result. Users behave quite linearly, extra points if they act differently all of a sudden.

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#204

Post by observationist »

nlarew wrote: post #200
rmac wrote: post #173

[!warning!] 1) this projects' chrome extension sends detailed telemetry to posthog and amplitude: - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/telemetry.pn... - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/pings.png 2) this project includes source for the local mcp server, but not for its chrome extension, which is likely bundling https://github.com/ruifigueira/playwright-crx without attribution super suss

"detailed" is an anonymized deviceId and a counter of tool calls? Heaven forbid an app want to get some basic insights into how people use it.

This automatic sense of entitlement to surveil users is the absolute embodiment of the banality of evil.

It's 2025 - we want informed consent and voluntary participation with the default assumption that no, we do not want you watching over our shoulders, and no, you are not entitled to covertly harvest all the data you want and monetize that without notifying users or asking permissions. The whole ToS gotcha game is bullshit, and it's way past time for this behavior to stop.

Ignorance and inertia bolstering the status quo doesn't make it any less wrong to pile more bullshit like this onto the existing massive pile of bullshit we put up with. It's still bullshit.

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#205

Post by tomrod »

nlarew wrote: post #200
rmac wrote: post #173

[!warning!] 1) this projects' chrome extension sends detailed telemetry to posthog and amplitude: - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/telemetry.pn... - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/pings.png 2) this project includes source for the local mcp server, but not for its chrome extension, which is likely bundling https://github.com/ruifigueira/playwright-crx without attribution super suss

"detailed" is an anonymized deviceId and a counter of tool calls? Heaven forbid an app want to get some basic insights into how people use it.

Correct. Telemetry should _always_ be opt-in and explicitly an easy choice to not engage.

Any other mode of operation is morally bankrupt.

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#206

Post by namuorg »

rmac wrote: post #173

[!warning!] 1) this projects' chrome extension sends detailed telemetry to posthog and amplitude: - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/telemetry.pn... - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/pings.png 2) this project includes source for the local mcp server, but not for its chrome extension, which is likely bundling https://github.com/ruifigueira/playwright-crx without attribution super suss

Hey, creator of Browser MCP here.

1. Yes, the extension uses an anonymous device ID and sends an analytics event when a tool call is used. You can inspect the network traffic to verify that zero personalized or identifying information is sent.

I collect anonymized usage data to get an idea of how often people are using the extension in the same way that websites count visitors. I split my time between many projects and having a sense of how many active users there are is helpful for deciding which ones to focus on.

2. The extension is completely written by me, and I wrote in this GitHub issue why the repo currently only contains the MCP server (in short, I use a monorepo that contains code used by all my extensions and extracting this extension and maintaining multiple monorepos while keeping them in sync would require quite a bit of work): https://github.com/BrowserMCP/mcp/issues/1#issuecomment-2784...

I understand that you're frustrated with the way I've built this project, but there's really nothing nefarious going on here. Cheers!

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#207

Post by unixfox »

bhouston wrote: post #44

So the website claims: "Avoids bot detection and CAPTCHAs by using your real browser fingerprint." Yeah, not really. I've used a similar system a few weeks back (one I wrote myself), having AI control my browser using my logged in session, and I started to get Captcha's during my human sessions in the browser and eventually I got blocked from a bunch of websites. Now that I've stopped using my browser session in that…

The extension enable debugging in your browser (a banner appears telling you about automation). It's possible to detect that in JavaScript.

Hence why projects like this exist: https://github.com/Kaliiiiiiiiii-Vinyzu/patchright. They hide the debugging part from JavaScript.

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#208

Post by unixfox »

andy_ppp wrote: post #85

When I go to a shopping website I want to be able to tell my browser "hey please go through all the sideboards on this list and filter out for the ones that are larger than 155cm and smaller than 100cm, prioritise the ones with dark wood and space for vinyl records which are 31.43cm tall" for example. Is there any browser that can do this yet as it seems extremely useful to be able to extract details from the page!

You could do that with browser-use: https://browser-use.com/

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#209

Post by Trias11 »

namuorg wrote: post #206
rmac wrote: post #173

[!warning!] 1) this projects' chrome extension sends detailed telemetry to posthog and amplitude: - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/telemetry.pn... - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/pings.png 2) this project includes source for the local mcp server, but not for its chrome extension, which is likely bundling https://github.com/ruifigueira/playwright-crx without attribution super suss

Hey, creator of Browser MCP here. 1. Yes, the extension uses an anonymous device ID and sends an analytics event when a tool call is used. You can inspect the network traffic to verify that zero personalized or identifying information is sent. I collect anonymized usage data to get an idea of how often people are using the extension in the same way that websites count visitors. I split my time between many projects a…

When people see “I collect” they won’t even bother reading further.

This is showstopper.

Noble reasons won’t matter.

Spyware perception.

Re: Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code

#210

Post by asaddhamani »

namuorg wrote: post #206
rmac wrote: post #173

[!warning!] 1) this projects' chrome extension sends detailed telemetry to posthog and amplitude: - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/telemetry.pn... - https://storage.googleapis.com/cobrowser-images/pings.png 2) this project includes source for the local mcp server, but not for its chrome extension, which is likely bundling https://github.com/ruifigueira/playwright-crx without attribution super suss

Hey, creator of Browser MCP here. 1. Yes, the extension uses an anonymous device ID and sends an analytics event when a tool call is used. You can inspect the network traffic to verify that zero personalized or identifying information is sent. I collect anonymized usage data to get an idea of how often people are using the extension in the same way that websites count visitors. I split my time between many projects a…

Hey, as a maker, I get it. You spent time building something, and you want to understand how it gets used. If you're not collecting personal info, there is nothing wrong with this.

Knee-jerk reactions aren't helpful. Yes, too much tracking is not good, but some tracking is definitely important to improving a product over time and focusing your efforts.

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