This method is the best approach, especially if you're using something like Ungoogled Chromium.
This often means reading patch notes you wouldn't want to miss a critical security update. However, this is a double-edged sword you also have to stay on top of these updates in the first place. Installing extensions by hand does give you greater control over the exact versions of extensions you're running.įor example, you can more easily rollback an update that keeps crashing your browser when you install extensions manually. So, in general, this may very well not be an issue to everyone, but it is still a viable issue for some. This may not be a big deal to you, because perhaps your Google account is a "throwaway" account that you use when interacting with any other Google service. This is Google's hyper personalized recommendation system at work. What I mean by that 2nd point in the above sentence, is that you might start seeing more extensions related to "privacy" once you download a privacy related extension. This means that if you download a privacy related extension straight from the web store, 1) this gets directly linked your google account, which is subject to Google's privacy policy and 2) feeds some information straight to Google. This information can be relatively harmless, but we know how hard Big Data mines any bit of information available.įor example, with the Chrome Web Store, you can only download extensions if you have and are signed into a Google account. Naturally, when you install apps and extensions from any kind of web store directly, you're trading some of your information. Installing extensions by hand or simply bypassing the Chrome Web Store, can improve your privacy. This is probably the biggest reason for most users choosing to install extensions manually.
Why would you ever choose to install an extension by hand?Įxact individual reasons vary, but in general you can boil it down to a couple of things: