Sidenote: The "collaboration" offers come from time to time even to non-extensions projects, if they are reasonably widely used. E.g. simple tools (rather widely used suite of android apps recently sold).
cool idea to publish those. i remember when the pirate bay was publishing takedown notices in a special, public, category
LOL
As long as they are lines [like ones used to collect card info](https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/11/british_airways_websi...) from British Airways (supply chain attack).
For how many days will profit be collected is the question (plus the fun criminal investigation).
Though, even if you are, paid products are often monetized in all the exact same ways. Why not.
Duh?
Who isn't motivated by money, though? The frequent acquisition of free extensions proves that even open source developers are motivated by money too.
The issue, again, is the identity of the customer. Is the customer you, the extension user, or is the customer the advertisers, making you the product?
I would say, as the developer of an upfront paid web browser extension, that upfront paid web browser extensions are underrated. ;-)
It's a truism that if you're not the customer, you're the product. But what if you are the customer? I think a lot of the mistrust of browser extensions is due to the difficulty in monetizing extensions directly. If you're making nothing from an extension, and someone offers you a nice check to acquire the extension, it can be difficult to turn down that money, especially if the extension is a support burdern for the developer. Of course I have my price too, as almost everyone does, but at this point the price would have to be 7 figures (maybe 8??), which I don't think anyone would ever pay for my extension. My user base is relatively small, and thus doesn't provide a huge opportunity for data collection or other nefarious schemes, precisely because the extension is paid rather than free.