Aug 10, 2023 20:00:00

Developers of open source applications publish dozens of shocking acquisition proposal emails such as ``Add information collection function because you pay 4 million yen a year'' and ``Let me collect location information for hundreds of thousands of yen per month''

The author of the Chrome extension ``

Hover Zoom + '' developed by open source has released `` Acquisition proposal email received from a company ''. Some of the published emails ask for the addition of scripts that collect users' personal information in exchange for money, giving a glimpse of the difficulty of maintaining the safety of open source projects.

Temptations of an open-source browser extension developer extesy/hoverzoom Discussion #670 GitHub
https://github.com/extesy/hoverzoom/discussions/670

Hover Zoom+ - Chrome Web Store
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hover-zoom%20/pccckmaobkjjboncdfnnofkonhgpceea

Hover Zoom+ is a free extension for Chrome that has over 300,000 users at the time of writing.

The function of Hover Zoom + is a simple one that ``Hover the mouse pointer over the image in the web page to enlarge the image''.

Hover Zoom+ is an extension developed by Oleg Anashkin as an alternative version of 'HoverZoom' with similar functions. Based on the fact that the original HoverZoom was forced to stop publishing due to suspicion of malware, Hover Zoom + is developed as open source software that uses the MIT license.

Hover Zoom + emphasizes the protection of user privacy from the background of its development, but Mr. Anashkin made an acquisition proposal for Hover Zoom + and ``If you insert a script that collects user information, you will be paid.'' We have received many proposals. Mr. Anashkin publishes the received proposal while hiding the company name and person name.

The acquisition proposal email received on May 26, 2016 is as follows. We are proposing to Mr. Anashkin to buy Hover Zoom + for $ 14,500 (about 2,090,000 yen).

On May 11, 2016, a script that collects information such as 'Domain with DNS error', 'Time stamp when error occurred', 'Location information when error occurred', 'Randomly generated user ID' on Hover Zoom + We have received proposals to pay thousands of dollars (hundreds of thousands of yen) every month if we introduce it.

On August 18, 2021, we also received a proposal to pay an annual fee of $ 30,000 (about 4.32 million yen) in exchange for the addition of the data collection function.

In addition, Mr. Anashkin says that he is in a job where he can get a salary that can ignore proposals from companies, and he says that Hover Zoom + has not added an information gathering function.