[prahladyeri]

The review process seems quite intimidating as described by the OP. Things like use of localStorage is almost like a given in any extension these days and they ask justification for every permission you ask.

[greggsy]

So they should - extensions are very popular with consumers, and are a notoriously effective means of spreading malware. There’s a few current stories on the topic, which is odd, because the problem has been a problem for nearly ten years now.

Google spend a lot of money developing extremely effective security research capabilities, while completely ignoring the dumpster fire that is their app and extension stores.

[robomartin]

> while completely ignoring the dumpster fire that is their app and extension stores.

This is one of the factors that keeps me away from trying Android phones. I don’t trust Google for anything other than search. And even that has become somewhat questionable over the years. I do trust Apple. Even though I own a couple of them, I don’t care for their computers. As far as phones though, I will not consider anything other than iPhone.

[zenapollo]

Search has become a rotting dumpster that will be fully ablaze soon enough. Works great as a calculator and spell checker though.

[londons_explore]

Thing is... There is pretty much nothing malicious one can do with localstorage.

[jxf]

This isn't accurate. There are any number of XSS attacks that can be performed, which then allow you to look at secrets or tokens in localStorage, for example.