Web of Trust browser extension caught selling users' browser histories

When you name your add-on 'Web of Trust' there's a certain expectation that your customers can, you know, trust you. Apparently that's not the case as the Chrome, Firefox and Opera add-on has been caught selling its users web history data to third parties.

The Web of Trust add-on claims to offer users a safe, easy way to use the Internet by telling you which websites are safe to view, and which are unsafe (i.e. those with scams, malware, rogue web stores and dangerous links).

The add-on is free, and it appears that the company was making its money by selling user data to third party advertisers. While the company said that it was anonymizing data, that didn't hold up under scrutiny. An investigative report by journalists at German television broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), managed to identify over 50 people from sample data, and uncovered everything from active police investigations to the implied sexual orientation of a judge.

A German data protection commissioner also said that WoT did not do enough to get the consent of its 140 million users before gathering and selling their infomation. Moreover, there's evidence that the software can run the code it wants on any web page.

As a result of the findings, Web of Trust has been temporarily pulled from Firefox, Google and Opera. Web of Trust says it is now taking steps to re-examine its privacy policy, and will be offering an opt-out for the data you share.

Source: NDR.de via The Register