CXcxr·Aug 8, 2026
Plenty of discussion about this on HN over the last six months
<https://github.com/mdp/linkedin-extension-fingerprinting>
<https://browsergate.eu/>
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linkedin-extension-fingerprinting
JavaScript2026–2026
mdp / linkedin-extension-fingerprinting
linkedin-extension-fingerprinting
Discover this repository through its Hacker News conversations.
3Distinct people
5Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
218GitHub stars
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What it is
A public description has not been verified.
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
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Also in these discussions
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by week5 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2026-02-05 20:00:39 UTC to 2026-08-08 20:47:49 UTC. Weeks start Monday, UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2 | 2026-02-02 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-09 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Feb 9 | 2026-02-09 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-16 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 16 | 2026-02-16 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-23 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 23 | 2026-02-23 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-02 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2 | 2026-03-02 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-09 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 9 | 2026-03-09 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-16 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 16 | 2026-03-16 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-23 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 23 | 2026-03-23 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-30 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 30 | 2026-03-30 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-06 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Apr 6 | 2026-04-06 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-13 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 13 | 2026-04-13 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 20 | 2026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 27 | 2026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 4 | 2026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 11 | 2026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 18 | 2026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 25 | 2026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 1 | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 8 | 2026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 15 | 2026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 22 | 2026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 29 | 2026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 6 | 2026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 13 | 2026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 20 | 2026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 27 | 2026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 3 | 2026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-10 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
5 sourcesTo think that there's any one class of behavior motivating them is missing the point. This was all pretty well-documented a couple of months ago. (Previously: <https://github.com/mdp/linkedin-extension-fingerprinting> 244 comments. 2026 February 5. 534 points. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46904361>)
They're doing a lot more than scanning for "compromised or misleading extensions"; there are a lot of scummy/spammy extensions on the list, but among the extensions included in the list of those they probe are also extensions such as:
- "LinkedNotes" (basically the Personal Note feature from Mastodon, but on LinkedIn profiles) <https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/neefoldancbjljnnnpn...>
- "Highlight multiple keywords in a web page", an extension that re-implements the equivalent Firefox's "Highlight All" findbar button in C
Read the rest
hrome—and happens to mention LinkedIn in the description when describing one use case <https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ngkkfkfmnclhjlaofbh...>
- "Delayed gratification Research", a study/focus extension created "for OS semester at CODE University of Applied Sciences" to "Temporarily Block distracting websites"—with all of 4 active users <https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/mmibdgeegkhehbbadeb...>
It's pretty clear that LinkedIn, like many website operators, don't think of themselves as a source of information that it will send to your UA upon request. It's not even just that they want total visibility into your habits like the worst of the advertising/tracking companies. What they want is as control as they can manage to wrangle over the experience of what it's like when you're "on" their site (i.e. looking at something on your computer that came from their site)—not least of all so they can upsell their userbase on premium features. LinkedIn doesn't care so much that people are inundating other users/orgs that might not appreciate that they're being treated as a "lead", so much as LinkedIn cares that the people doing the inundating are doing it with tools where LinkedIn wasn't able to get a cut.
"The code" here you're referring to (fetch_extension_names.js[1]) isn't and doesn't claim to be LinkedIn's fingerprinting code. It's a scraper that the researcher behind this repo wrote themselves in order to create the CSV of the data that they're publishing here.
LinkedIn's fingerprinting code, as the README explains, is found in fingerprint.js[2], which embeds a big JSON literal with the IDs of the extensions it probes for. (Sickeningly enough, this data starts about two-thirds of the way through the file* and isn't the culprit behind the bulk of its 2.15 MB size…)
* On line 34394; the one starting:
const r = [{
id: "aacbpggdjcblgnmgjgpkpddliddineni",
file: "sidebar.html"
1. <https://github.com/mdp/linkedin-extension-fingerprinting/blo...>
2. <https://github.com/mdp/linkedin-extension-fingerprinti
Read the rest
I suggest everyone take a look at the list of extensions and their names for some very important context: https://github.com/mdp/linkedin-extension-fingerprinting/blo...
I didn't find popular extensions like uBlock or other ad blockers.
The list is full of scammy looking data collection and AI tools, though. Some random names from scrolling through the list:
- LinkedGPT: ChatGPT for LinkedIn
- Apollo Scraper - Extract & Export Apollo B2B Leads
- AI Social Media Assistant
- LinkedIn Engagement Assistant
- LinkedIn Lead Magnet
- LinkedIn Extraction Tool - OutreachSheet
- Highperformr AI - Phone Number and Email Finder
- AI Agent For Jobs
These look like the kind of tools scummy recruiters and sales people use to identify targets for mass spamming. I see several AI auto-application tools in there too.
In LinkedIn checks for 2953 browser extensionsLinkedIn checks for 2953 browser extensions
534 points · Open discussion