152 Chrome Live Wallpaper Extensions Hid Ad Tracking and Faked Google Search Traffic

Socket’s Threat Research Team identified a family of 152 Chrome Web Store new-tab “live wallpaper” extensions, built from one shared codebase but distributed across 38 separate Chrome Web Store publisher accounts and three brand backends, carrying a combined total of approximately 105,000 reported installs. Every listing declares on the Chrome Web Store that it will not collect or use user data, while the linked privacy policy admits the opposite: that the extensions log IP addresses, ISP, click counts, and referrers and share that data with Google AdSense, DoubleClick, and third-party ad part