Urgent Warning: Popular Chrome VPN ‘FreeVPN.One’ Caught Covertly Snapping User Activity, Still Live on Web Store

A widely used Chrome VPN extension, FreeVPN.One, boasting over 100,000 installations, has been unmasked for secretly capturing screenshots of users’ browsing activity and transmitting them to a remote server. Security experts at Koi Security issued the critical alert, revealing a significant failure in Google’s security protocols as the malicious extension continues to be available for download on the Chrome Web Store.

Koi Security’s comprehensive report details how FreeVPN.One, despite its branding as a privacy tool and its ‘verified status,’ initiated this surreptitious behavior in July. The extension reportedly captures screenshots just over a second after each page load, impacting a broad range of websites, including highly trusted domains like Google. Researchers have debunked the developer’s claims that this activity is part of an ‘advanced AI Threat Detection’ for ‘suspicious pages,’ presenting clear evidence of unauthorized and widespread data collection.

This incident highlights serious vulnerabilities within major browser marketplaces, demonstrating how extensions with harmful capabilities can bypass automated security scans and human reviews. Despite the clear violation of policies prohibiting data use unrelated to an extension’s core functionality, Google has yet to respond to inquiries regarding Koi’s findings or remove FreeVPN.One from its store, leaving a substantial user base exposed to ongoing surveillance.

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