Monetization Emails to Extension Developers

[Jackie Han]

I just saw a discussion. This is true, and I believe many extension developers have received similar emails.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/nuf0nj/chrome_extension_devs_get_hit_up_incessantly_with/
• https://github.com/extesy/hoverzoom/discussions/670

How do you process these emails?

A) ignor

B) reply and ask them how to cooperate

C) if you do business with them, what's the result?

Jackie Han

[Kos]

what usually people do with unsolicited mass emails - mark them as spam <- this

[avm99963]

Overall I've also received 50+ of these emails, and I just ignore them.

All my extensions are open source, so if they're trying to buy my extension, I guess what they are really trying to buy are my users, and I won't let someone harm them by collecting information about them.

[avm99963]

Oh, I forgot to say that they get my email from the Chrome Web Store, since my email published in the Chrome Web Store has +cws appended to the username (go here and click "Contact the developer").

[hrg...@gmail.com]

I'm routinely receiving emails proposing either to buy an extension or to monetize it.

Those that propose to monetize it, always require the same mechanism, which is to incorporate into the extension a piece of code that will most likely steal the user's private data or activity.

According to the CWS policies, you cannot collect private information that's not necessary for the purpose of you extension, so all those monetization proposals are useless. Accepting them puts you in immediate violation of the policies.

Whenever I receive those emails, I just move them to a label called "Business Offers" and ignore them.

After collecting so many of those emails, I've started noticing that most of them come from the same origin (same company?) because they are written in a similar way using the same terms and expressions.

[Michel Gutierrez]

I have received hundreds of these over the years. I used to decline politely now i just ignore because they tend to insist.

Does anyone know about extensions that took the deal ?

[Deco]

 Yes, there has been countless. A write-up was done about selling one here: https://www.labnol.org/internet/sold-chrome-extension/28377/

Thanks,

Deco

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[Get Muzui]

D) mark as spam

[Michel Gutierrez]

The situation with the Feedly extension in the story is very different. The guy sold his extension, it was then not his responsibility anymore.

In the case of taking the monetization package to your own extension, it is more like getting a roommate into your house knowing he's going to do nasty things.