When it comes to staying safe online, the teensiest shred of common sense goes an impressively long way.
That’s absolutely true on Android, as I’ve been preaching for more years than I can even remember at this point — and it’s true on the web, too, especially when you’re working within the desktop browser you almost certainly use alongside your mobile device.
With the web, the desktop domain adds in the extra wrinkle of browser extensions — which can add powerful new possibilities into your web-wide work space but can also open up windows into worrisome security scenarios, since many such add-ons inevitably require access to activity-related data or even the ability to modify what you’re seeing on the web and inject extra elements into your view.
For the most part, the “common sense” approach still works wonders. You should always assess something carefully before installing it to make sure the developer seems trustworthy, the reviews seem positive, and the requested permissions seem sensible — particularly with whatever privacy assurances are provided. All of that info is always available within Google’s Chrome Web Store when you’re looking at something new, and ideally, you’ll revisit it periodically and regularly eliminate anything you no longer need.
But increasingly over time, an asterisk has emerged that creates a tricky-to-avoid risk: Sometimes, perfectly legitimate Chrome extensions get sold — and the buyer ends up being far less reputable than the original developer you considered and ultimately decided to trust. And, since you already have the thing in place on your browser, you’re none the wiser to the change and its potential implications for your security.
This very prickly predicament just popped up days ago, when a popular Chrome extension for saving images from the web starting showing signs of shifty behavior. Sure enough, the extension seems to have changed hands a matter of months ago, and the million-plus people who had previously trusted it were suddenly subjected to a new developer’s under-the-hood changes. That continued until enough folks noticed to cause the extension to get flagged — a step that, unfortunately, may have come too late for some people.
Such scenarios may seem hopeless, but take heed: There’s actually an easy way to preemptively protect yourself from these very sorts of shenanigans. And it takes just 20 seconds of one-time setup, now, to achieve.
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Your simple new Chrome security guard
Our wily web-fortifying hero comes in the form of a crafty Chrome extension for desktop web browsers called Under New Management.
Under New Management does one thing and one thing only: It watches all of your installed browser add-ons and alerts you anytime any of ’em changes hands and accepts a new owner.
Now, software being sold isn’t necessarily a red flag, of course. Developers can legitimately pass the baton to a trustworthy new steward in a reputable transaction that’s no cause for concern.
But with Chrome extensions in particular, we’ve seen so many instances like the one we mentioned a moment ago — where a once-reputable add-on gets pawned off to someone with less-than-honorable intentions and its users ultimately pay the price — that it’s at the very least something you deserve to know about and should be able to consider closely when it occurs.
And that’s what Under New Management is there to do: It just keeps an eye on everything you’ve got installed, quietly and in the background, and puts up a simple red badge in your browser toolbar whenever a developer change occurs.
Class V Software
All you’ve gotta do is install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, then pin it to your toolbar (by clicking the puzzle-shaped extension icon in Chrome’s upper-right corner, finding “Under New Management” in the list that appears, and clicking the pushpin alongside it) so you’ll always see any changes it uncovers.
(And since so many other browsers are based on the same Chromium foundation as Chrome, you can also install and use Under New Management in them as well — everything from Edge to Vivaldi, Brave, Opera, and beyond.)
Notably, Under New Management itself doesn’t require access to anything more than monitoring your installed apps and extensions. It doesn’t request any permissions, and its developer is clear that it doesn’t collect or share any manner of data, either. The extension is also open source, so anyone with the right know-how can inspect the code and confirm that it’s doing exactly what it says and nothing more.
So install it, pin it, then forget about it. The extension probably won’t demand your attention often, if ever, and it won’t have any meaningful impact on your day-to-day browser performance or experience.
But if and when it does pop up a warning, you’ll be glad to know it alerted you. And you’ll be able to look closely at whatever changed hands to keep an eye on what it’s doing — or just uninstall it, if you’re in the least bit uncomfortable — before any unfortunate additions come along and catch you by surprise.
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