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LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

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Re: LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

#161
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by some miracle someone managed to create this, and a critical mass of people somehow discovered it and used it, at some point they'd burn out, sell it, and it would turn into the same shit that we see everywhere else.

Not if you organize it as a non-profit with stated purpose that explicitly address exactly that… and is run as a public service for the public good.

Might have better success with a Public Benefit Corporation instead of a nonprofit. I’ve considered starting some myself.

Re: LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

#162

This is re-posted article from the author's Substack that does a pretty bad job of explaining the situation. The second link in the article is supposed to take you to a "GitHub repository tracking the extension list" but it goes to a GitHub page for a plugin that hasn't been updated in 9 years. It has a lot of hallmarks of LLM writings ("It's not this, it's that" and feeling like a lot of empty words rehydrated from…

> But click the links. They've all been pulled from the store. I did that with the first five extensions in the list; only one was removed from the store. So you should qualify this statement. Maybe they are all scammy extensions, and maybe this is a weird LLM-driven astroturfing campaign, but let's try to at least root our arguments in a shared reality.

You're misunderstanding what that's in reference to. It's not about all of the extensions in the list being removed. It's about the 3 that are specifically called out in the text above the list to scare people into thinking they're being profiled for things that could put them in danger.

All 3 of those have been removed.

Re: LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

#163
Call me crazy but both Google and MS started doing weird things like that since about the dinner at Trump. Did you know that Google Chrome now happily asks you to store your ID/Passport information on top of all the information they offered to store for the last 10 years or so? Why now? Why this crazy "enhanced" feature? (https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/chrome/e...)

I am far from conspiracy theorist but, god damn, if you take a few steps back from all the current madness and look at what's happening from a perspective, then YES, they're collecting all that data and it up to specific people and their IDs. I don't even want to guess how deep are Palantir and AI chat in this.

Re: LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

#167
> Hundreds of job search extensions are in the scan list. LinkedIn knows which of its users are quietly looking for work before they've told their employer. … Extensions tied to political content, religious practice

Why are these even extensions to begin with? A legit job finding service can be a website, no extension required. If they are nefarious extensions that fake ad clicks or mine cryptocurrency, that they are job search, or political, or religious in name/nature only serves to get rubes to install them. This entire ecosystem is goofed up.

Re: LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

#168
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by some miracle someone managed to create this, and a critical mass of people somehow discovered it and used it, at some point they'd burn out, sell it, and it would turn into the same shit that we see everywhere else.

Not if you organize it as a non-profit with stated purpose that explicitly address exactly that… and is run as a public service for the public good.

Now do OpenAI...

Re: LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

#169
I use firefox with uBlock Origin's matrix turned on linked in and its cdn is explicitly black listed globally on it. I see links like ~`licdn` or some shit appear with a lot more frequency on webapps in the matrix now a days. I would recommend you all install it and block it actively.

Its disgusting.

Re: LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions

#170
post #139

This is fairly standard practice for device fingerprinting. LI is probably using this to protect its platform from scraping etc, and extension lists have sufficient enough entropy to help identify users and form a useful component of a fingerprint.

Its already pretty easy to oneshot an extension aiding scraping and LI can do nothing about it. I've seen people build and install a local chrome extension in a couple of days and have an AI inject itself into devtools and scrape pretty much any website. And that was a few months ago. I don't think there is an easy way to defend against such things anymore. Its a matter of time that defensive programming measures like this become useless.
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