What?
The same can happen with any piece of software in the world. Why single out extensions?
The same can happen with any piece of software in the world. Why single out extensions?
As well as almost all regular software is backed by some large company with legal presence to hold responsible. The same can not be said for most extensions.
This is also true of web extensions. I suspect you've never developed one. You can't read another extension's data. It's also not true on desktop platforms. The user is still the security domain in desktop computing.
> As well as almost all regular software is backed by some large company with legal presence to hold responsible. The same can not [sic] be said for most extensions.
Is this true? All the browser extensions I use are published by a real legal entity that can be sued if they are negligent. What corner of the web are you on?
Regarding extensions code: indeed, I do read the code of extensions that require some elevated permissions, if these extensions are not otherwise vetted. This is why I avoid installing excessively complicated extensions, unless they ask for minor permissions. Having the list of tabs if no big deal; accessing data in your tabs, even for a particular site, triggers scrutiny.
It also makes it easier to deal with it after the fact. You can fork an open source project the minute it's detected that it's doing something it shouldn't. When closed source software goes bad you can't pick right up from the last known good version and move on, you have to find a product that entirely replaces what you had and hope that it does everything you need at least as well which isn't always likely since you were presumably using the other software because it was better than existing alternatives.