Eight Million Users’ AI Conversations Allegedly Harvested and Sold by “Privacy” Browser Extensions in Unprecedented Data Scandal

A major security investigation has revealed that browser extensions promoted as privacy and security tools allegedly harvested and monetised complete user conversations with popular AI chat platforms, affecting more than eight million users across Chrome and Microsoft Edge. The extensions, led by Urban VPN Proxy, were found to inject hidden scripts that intercepted prompts and responses from services such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, transmitting the data to company-controlled servers regardless of whether VPN features were enabled. Although elements of this behaviour were referenced in obscure consent notices and privacy policies, the activity was largely invisible to users and contradicted marketplace descriptions, raising serious concerns about informed consent, extension marketplace oversight, and the growing commercial value of highly sensitive AI conversation data.