Study finds over half of AI Chrome extensions collect user data

A study by data removal service Incogni analyzed 442 AI-branded Chrome extensions and found more than half collect user data, while almost a third gather personally identifiable information. The extensions in the sample had been downloaded around 115.5 million times.

The research found 42% of extensions use scripting that can capture typing or alter page content, a capability Incogni says could affect about 92 million users. Incogni identified Grammarly and Quillbot as among the most potentially privacy-damaging, and also flagged Nily AI Sidebar and EaseMate for high risk likelihood and impact.

Incogni ranked categories by risk: programming and mathematical helpers were the riskiest, followed by meeting assistants, audio transcribers and writing assistants, while audiovisual generators and text and video summarizers were least invasive on average. Only 10 of the 442 extensions scored high in both risk likelihood and impact, with Google Translate at number four and ChatGPT Search at number ten.

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