Spot fake AI apps and browser extensions
Malicious AI assistant browser extensions have been installed around 900,000 times, harvesting people’s ChatGPT and DeepSeek chat histories. Here’s how to avoid them.
- Install AI tools only from the official app store or the vendor’s own website — never from an ad or a random search result.
- Be wary of any extension that asks to read and change data on all the websites you visit.
- Check the publisher carefully. Fakes copy names and logos, and can have reviews and big install numbers too.
- A “download ChatGPT for Windows” page that isn’t on OpenAI’s own site is a warning sign.
- Remove browser extensions you don’t use.
- At work, ask IT before installing anything new.
Based on: Microsoft Security — Malicious AI assistant extensions harvest chat histories · Malwarebytes — Fake ChatGPT download site
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