News Summary

• Every time you visit LinkedIn in a Chrome-based browser, a hidden JavaScript routine silently probes your browser for more than 6,000 installed extensions.
• It collects 48 hardware and software characteristics about your device, encrypts the resulting fingerprint, and attaches it to every API request you make during your session.
• The practice, labelled “BrowserGate” by researchers, is not disclosed in LinkedIn’s privacy policy.
• LinkedIn says it is a security measure; critics say it is covert surveillance of a billion users’ browsing behaviour at industrial scale.