Trust Factors:
- The extension has a relatively high number of users (200,000) and a good rating (5.0/5.0), which suggests some level of trust from the user community.
- However, the developer information is limited, and there is no clear indication of the company's reputation or history.
Concerns:
- The extension requests the "geolocation" permission, which is unnecessary for a validator tool and raises privacy concerns.
- The "storage" permission allows the extension to store data locally, which could potentially be misused to store sensitive information.
- The broad host permissions allowing access to all websites are concerning, as they could potentially be used for tracking browsing activity or stealing sensitive data.
Recommendations:
- Exercise caution when installing this extension, as it requests unnecessary permissions and has broad host access.
- Consider running the extension in a separate Chrome profile or a sandboxed environment to mitigate potential risks.
- Monitor the extension's behavior and uninstall it if any suspicious activity is detected.
- Seek alternative validator tools from reputable developers that request only the necessary permissions and have transparent privacy policies.