Urban VPN Proxy Surreptitiously Intercepts AI Chats
Full article167 words · extracted from schneier.com · click to collapse
This is pretty scary:
Urban VPN Proxy targets conversations across ten AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok (xAI), Meta AI.
For each platform, the extension includes a dedicated “executor” script designed to intercept and capture conversations. The harvesting is enabled by default through hardcoded flags in the extension’s configuration.
There is no user-facing toggle to disable this. The only way to stop the data collection is to uninstall the extension entirely.
[…]
The data collection operates independently of the VPN functionality. Whether the VPN is connected or not, the harvesting runs continuously in the background.
[…]
What gets captured:
- Every prompt you send to the AI
- Every response you receive
- Conversation identifiers and timestamps
- Session metadata
- The specific AI platform and model used
Boing Boing post.
EDITED TO ADD (12/15): Two news articles.
Tags: eavesdropping, privacy, surveillance, VPN
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/12/urban-vpn-proxy-surreptitiously-intercepts-ai-chats.html