Report Says AI Browser Extensions Capture Private Chats
Summary
A report describes AI browser extensions—including Urban VPN, Smart Sidebar and Chat AI—capturing conversations from services such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek through injected scripts, DOM monitoring or iframe communication.
Key points
- The article reports that certain versions of Urban VPN monitor visits to AI chat services and route conversation data through external code frameworks, even when the VPN is disconnected.
- Smart Sidebar reportedly uses DOM monitoring to capture ChatGPT and DeepSeek interactions and send the collected text in Base64-encoded data.
- Reportedly collected data includes full prompts and responses, conversation identifiers, model host names and timestamps.
- Chat AI reportedly embeds a remote chat interface in an iframe and communicates local choices to an unverified domain.
- The article recommends organizations use extension allow-lists to reduce the risk of sensitive chat data being exposed.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Security researchers identified malicious AI browser extensions that monitor and exfiltrate users’ conversations from AI services.
- Impact
- The extensions can capture full prompts and responses, timestamps, and conversation identifiers, then transmit the data to external servers. This creates a risk of exposure of enterprise and proprietary information. The article reports that AI utilities have accumulated over 115 million users, but does not identify confirmed victims or quantify data loss.
Products
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