Schneier - Urban VPN Proxy Surreptitiously Intercepts AI Chats

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.



from Schneier on Security https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/12/urban-vpn-proxy-surreptitiously-intercepts-ai-chats.html

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