{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0359","record_version":1,"title":"Urban VPN Proxy Chrome extension harvested AI chat conversations","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":60.7,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":20.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":3.52,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"confirmed","reason":"remio's own report","original_document":{"url":"https://www.remio.ai/post/urban-vpn-caught-in-ai-data-collection-scandal-8-million-users-exposed","organisation":"remio","role":"company"},"reports_total":3,"reports_independent":3,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"confirmed","reason":"remio's own report"}]},"sources_hash":"86fb307dc8e23c4f95537c3a2c76d41d764f4ee20d77a0cc7b56a78aa80887c9"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":"read and change all your data on the websites you visit","autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":"2025-07-09","date_disclosed":"2025-12-16","incident_class":"privacy_leakage","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"third_party","summary":"Urban VPN Proxy, a free Chrome extension with over 6 million installs, was reported to have collected conversations users held with major AI assistants, including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. According to the investigation by Koi, starting with version 5.5.0 released on July 9, 2025, the extension intercepted prompts and responses by overriding browser APIs and sent them to the publisher's servers, even when the VPN was turned off. The harvested data was later shared with BiScience, an affiliated data broker. The discovery came after Koi's analysis of browser extensions for hidden data exfiltration. Koi found the same scripts in related extensions, which together affected more than 8 million users. Google's review system did not detect the behaviour. As of December 19, the extension had been removed from the Google app store.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK04","secondary_risks":["RK15"]},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","harm_class":["privacy"],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://cyberpress.org/browser-extension-data-recording/","publisher":"Cyber Press","date":"2025-12-16","type":"press","title":"Six Million Users Trusted This Extension Without Knowing What It Records - Cyber Press","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://www.remio.ai/post/urban-vpn-caught-in-ai-data-collection-scandal-8-million-users-exposed","publisher":"remio","date":"2025-12-18","type":"press","title":"Urban VPN Caught in AI Data Collection Scandal: 8 Million Users Exposed - remio","archived_url":null,"independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://forklog.com/en/free-vpn-in-chrome-collected-ai-conversations/","publisher":"ForkLog","date":"2025-12-19","type":"press","title":"Chrome’s Free VPN Collected AI Chat Histories, Report Reveals - ForkLog","archived_url":null,"independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.permissions_scope":"C","event.date_occurred":"C","event.incident_class":"C","event.detection_method":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.severity":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.secondary_risks":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","context.country":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.permissions_scope":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"As long as the extension has permissions to \"read and change all your data on the websites you visit\" (which VPNs require to function), it can read your chat logs."}],"event.date_occurred":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Contrary to users’ expectations of privacy and security, researchers found that, starting with version 5.5.0 (released on July 9, 2025), Urban VPN Proxy began intercepting and exfiltrating user interactions with AI assistants even when the VPN was turned off."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The captured data, including prompts, responses, timestamps, and session metadata, is sent to Urban VPN’s servers via background workers via endpoints such as analytics.urban-vpn.com and stats.urban-vpn.com."}],"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A recent investigation by the research team at Koi has uncovered that the popular Chrome extension Urban VPN Proxy, with over 6 million installs and a “Featured” badge from Google, was silently harvesting conversations from major AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The harvested data, including personal and sensitive information, was later shared with BiScience (B.I. Science Ltd.), Urban VPN’s affiliated data broker, which sells behavioral and browsing data to advertisers through products such as AdClarity and Clickstream OS."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Combined, these Chrome and Edge extensions affected more than 8 million users."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A recent investigation by the research team at Koi has uncovered that the popular Chrome extension Urban VPN Proxy, with over 6 million installs and a “Featured” badge from Google, was silently harvesting conversations from major AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Contrary to users’ expectations of privacy and security, researchers found that, starting with version 5.5.0 (released on July 9, 2025), Urban VPN Proxy began intercepting and exfiltrating user interactions with AI assistants even when the VPN was turned off."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The harvested data, including personal and sensitive information, was later shared with BiScience (B.I. Science Ltd.), Urban VPN’s affiliated data broker, which sells behavioral and browsing data to advertisers through products such as AdClarity and Clickstream OS."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Combined, these Chrome and Edge extensions affected more than 8 million users."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The discovery came after Koi’s Wings’ agentic-AI risk engine analyzed browser extensions for hidden data exfiltration capabilities."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Google’s review system, intended to verify safety and privacy compliance, failed to detect or act upon this behavior, even though the collection directly violated Chrome’s Limited Use Policy, which prohibits sharing user data with data brokers."},{"source_index":2,"quote":"As of December 19, Urban VPN Proxy has been removed from the Google app store."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The sources do not state a record count, direct loss, remediation hours, or the date the investigation was disclosed; the 2025-12-16 article date was not treated as a disclosure date. No AI model or agent is named; the system is a browser extension, so agent fields, autonomy and failure classes were left out. Responsible party was not stated and was left out. Root cause 'oversight' is my judgement based on the store review failure quoted. Severity 'major' is my judgement: the 'more than 8 million users' count is treated as a stated count of two or more affected parties. Reversibility 'irreversible' rests on one press source's statement that scraped data is irretrievable. Sources disagree on badge wording ('Featured' in source 0, 'recommended' in source 2) and on the store name; I used the wording in each cited sentence. No remediation by the developer or Google is reported in the sources, so no remediation entry was made. Source 2 reports one extension list from Forbes, which I did not cite separately. Source 1 contains unsourced advice and claims that were not used. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Confirmed (remio's own report)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"The extension, which users installed as a free VPN, intercepted AI assistant conversations from version 5.5.0 onward, including when the VPN was off.","quote":"Contrary to users’ expectations of privacy and security, researchers found that, starting with version 5.5.0 (released on July 9, 2025), Urban VPN Proxy began intercepting and exfiltrating user interactions with AI assistants even when the VPN was turned off.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"The harvested data was later shared with BiScience, an affiliated data broker.","quote":"The harvested data, including personal and sensitive information, was later shared with BiScience (B.I. Science Ltd.), Urban VPN’s affiliated data broker, which sells behavioral and browsing data to advertisers through products such as AdClarity and Clickstream OS.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://cyberpress.org/browser-extension-data-recording/","https://www.remio.ai/post/urban-vpn-caught-in-ai-data-collection-scandal-8-million-users-exposed","https://forklog.com/en/free-vpn-in-chrome-collected-ai-conversations/"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Version 5.5.0 released and the extension began intercepting AI assistant conversations, even with the VPN off.","quote":"Contrary to users’ expectations of privacy and security, researchers found that, starting with version 5.5.0 (released on July 9, 2025), Urban VPN Proxy began intercepting and exfiltrating user interactions with AI assistants even when the VPN was turned off.","source_index":0,"when":"2025-07-09"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://cyberpress.org/browser-extension-data-recording/","https://www.remio.ai/post/urban-vpn-caught-in-ai-data-collection-scandal-8-million-users-exposed","https://forklog.com/en/free-vpn-in-chrome-collected-ai-conversations/"]}}