Google announced changes affecting Chrome extensions – developers must limit data collection to only what’s necessary and disclose everything extensions collect. The update also bans entire categories of extensions, including those that facilitate predictive market betting and help implement AI jailbreaks.

Google has given developers until August 1st, 2026, to implement the sweeping changes – after that, non-compliant extensions may face enforcement action.

“The Chrome Web Store is committed to fostering a high-quality, trusted, and secure ecosystem for both developers and users,” Google explains in a post on the Chrome for Developers blog.

The 4 announced updates are aimed at enhancing user privacy, enhancing data collection transparency, and addressing emerging product categories, as follows:

• Restricted user data collection: any user data collected by an extension must now be strictly necessary to the extension’s disclosed single purpose, and no other data collection is allowed.
• All data collection must be prominently disclosed to the user: new disclosure requirements oblige developers also to proactively disclose to users whenever data handling practices change at any point after the extension installation.
• Predictive markets are considered prohibited products, and extensions that facilitate or enable real money transactions on predictive outcomes are not allowed.
• Extensions that are designed to circumvent AI safety features (jailbreaking), usage restrictions, or other protective measures are also explicitly disallowed.

Google urges all developers to review whether their active extensions comply with these updated policies as soon as possible.

The tech giant argues that stricter policies, such as bans on prediction markets and AI safety-bypass extensions, will keep Chrome “an honest, useful and secure platform.”

“Users should always have full visibility into how their data is handled, with the confidence that their extension ecosystem operates responsibly,” Google added.

Cybernews previously documented that many popular Chrome extensions request excessive permissions and can track browsing, inject scripts, store private data, and more without the user noticing.

Google’s new data minimization rules are likely to curb multiple abuses.

For a while now, threat actors have been harvesting compromised extensions to spy on users and infect them with malware. 108 malicious extensions were flagged to contain backdoors in April, 2026. In May, dozens of fake AI, VPN, and crypto-themed extensions were found to secretly transmit user data and execute remote commands.

Recently, Cybernews also reported on a fake Perplexity AI extension that intercepts every query and keystroke typed into the address bar.