Extensions, wrappers and the permission dialog

The category with the worst average quality

App stores and browser extension stores contain thousands of AI assistants. A minority are good. A large share are a thin layer over an API somebody else runs, charging a monthly fee for access you could have free, and a meaningful number are worse than that.

This is the part of the field where people lose money and data, and it catches people who are being sensible everywhere else. It catches them hardest where the official products are hard to reach or hard to pay for, which is exactly where the need is greatest.

Reading a browser extension’s permissions

When you install an extension, the browser tells you what it may do. The line that matters is this one, or wording close to it:

Read and change all your data on all websites

That is what it says. An extension with that permission can read every page you visit (your webmail, your bank’s dashboard, your employer’s internal systems, anything you have logged into) and modify what appears on them. Most AI extensions request it, because reading the current page is the feature.

The permission is not automatically wrong. It is what a “summarise this page” button needs. But it means the extension deserves the same scrutiny as a person you are handing your browser to, because functionally that is the transaction.

Before installing, check four things, in about three minutes:

1. Who publishes it. A named company with a website, or an anonymous developer account created recently.
2. How many users, and how old. Ten thousand users over two years is a different proposition from thirty thousand in three weeks.
3. Recent reviews, sorted by newest. Extensions get sold. The classic pattern is a useful extension acquired by someone else, followed by an update that inserts tracking or ad injection into a tool that already has permission to change every page.
4. The privacy disclosure. Stores require a data-use declaration. Read it. “Collects browsing activity” in an AI summariser means the pages go somewhere.

The wrapper business

The other pattern is simpler: an app that takes your question, sends it to a major provider’s API, returns the answer, and charges you monthly for the privilege. Sometimes it adds genuine value: a good interface, a domain-specific set-up, offline queuing, a payment method that works in your country. Often it adds nothing but a price.

How to tell in two minutes:

• Does it name the model? Honest products do. “Powered by advanced AI” means no.
• What does it charge relative to the underlying cost? A wrapper charging $15 a month for something that costs $1.50 of API usage is selling convenience, and you should know that is what you are buying.
• Does it need an account and a card for a free trial? Not disqualifying, but check the renewal terms before entering anything.
• Is your data in the deal? Many free wrappers are free because your conversations are the product.

The honest cases are worth naming too. In markets where the official apps are unavailable or unpayable, a local wrapper that accepts local payment methods and answers in the local language is providing real value, and paying a margin for access you otherwise would not have is a reasonable trade.

Where the risk concentrates

Anything asking for a key. A third-party app that wants your OpenAI or Anthropic key can spend it. Give it a key with a low limit that you can revoke, never your main one.

Anything asking to sign in with Google or Microsoft. Read the scopes on the consent screen. “See, edit, create and delete all of your Google Drive files” is a request some AI apps make, and once granted it stays granted until you revoke it in your account settings. Check that page occasionally; most people have forgotten half of what is on it.

Anything on your work machine. The extension has the same access to internal systems that you do, and installing it may breach a policy you agreed to.

The safe default is boring and effective: use the official app or the official website, add a small number of extensions you have actually checked, and treat the rest of the category as advertising.