this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
        
      
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My thoughts exactly, what a heap of crap. Tom's Guide used to be one of the good ones out there, real shame.
What I was wondering though is if they detect browser plugins through some public ID - how difficult is it to change those? In Firefox it's absolutely trivial, you can simply download the extension, open it as a zip file, and then edit the files inside with a text editor and change the ID.
Haven't used chrome for years, but extensions used to be javascript files just as well, so I doubt they are that hard to edit. Unless they found a way to block installations from local files and enforce their shop, no idea if that's a thing.
I actually dismissed that one from the get go since there is not confirmation of any mechanism they described in the article. Not going to spend time on technical-looking explanations from someone who calls a whole another extension a "workaround". Might as well be the case of broken or outdated filters in ABP.
I'm sure if some major site finds a way to know your extensions we'll see some major unsolvable issues.