Platforms Scan Extensions for Surveillance

Companies can (and may) fingerprint which browser extensions a visitor has installed and tie that to user accounts, creating a persistent, page‑load level telemetry channel. When targeted extensions reveal political, religious, or competitive affiliations, that telemetry becomes a surveillance and competitive‑intel asset rather than a mere anti‑abuse measure. — If true and unregulated, large‑scale extension scanning lets dominant platforms infer sensitive attributes and map them to real professional identities, raising privacy, competition, and regulatory risks.