WeTab & Infinity Team Responds to "Poisoning" Allegations: Clean Master Was Sold Long Ago, Core Products Are Safe

Summary: Recently, a security report linked well-known browser extensions like Clean Master, WeTab, and Infinity to malicious activities, causing concern among users. The development team has released a detailed statement clarifying that the Clean Master Chrome version was sold long ago, and the malicious updates are unrelated to the original team. WeTab and Infinity are independently operated, and no backdoors have been found. The team is actively cooperating with platforms to restore the listings.

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Recently, a report released by a foreign security company caused quite a stir in the tech community. The report pointed out that several browser extensions, including Clean Master, WeTab, and Infinity, might be involved in long-term malicious activities. In response to this allegation, the WeTab/Infinity team quickly issued an official statement to clarify the situation in detail.

The Story of Clean Master: Malicious Updates Not by the Original Team

One of the core focuses of this controversy is the veteran cleaning tool Clean Master.

According to the official statement, Clean Master was indeed originally developed by the team. However, due to business adjustments, its Chrome version and related account control rights were sold to a third party in their entirety. The team explicitly stated that they no longer had control after the sale, and the malicious updates after 2024 mentioned in the security report were not released by the original team.

As for the Edge version, since the account permissions could not be legally transferred, the team voluntarily removed it from the store and stopped maintenance in 2024. The official statement emphasized that the last update of the Edge version before its removal was in 2020, which has nothing to do with the "malicious updates in 2024" mentioned in the report.

WeTab and Infinity: Independent Operation, Innocent Bystanders

For the highly acclaimed new tab tools WeTab and Infinity, the team firmly defended their security in the statement:

1. Independent Code Baseline: These two products are independently designed and operated by the team. The code is completely different from the early Clean Master and does not contain the so-called "backdoors" or malicious monitoring behaviors.
2. Clarification on Removal: The removal of these two extensions from stores noticed by some users was not because the products themselves were detected with malicious code, but because they used the same developer account as Clean Master. Out of risk control considerations, the platform took a unified "guilt by association" action against all extensions under that account.
3. Transparency in Data Collection: Regarding the allegation of "collecting user data" in the report, the team explained that the relevant data (such as click counts, rough location, etc.) is only used for basic product functions (such as syncing configurations, icon sorting) and necessary statistics. It absolutely does not involve user privacy (such as passwords, chat records, etc.) and personal browsing records will not be sold.

Active Self-Rescue: Introducing Third-Party Audits to Enhance Transparency

To rebuild user trust, the WeTab/Infinity team announced a series of rectification and reinforcement measures:

• Third-Party Audit: Invite independent security agencies to conduct code and privacy compliance audits on the current online versions of WeTab and Infinity, and publish the audit results.
• Increasing Transparency: Add clearer "Data and Privacy Explanations" in the product and provide an option to clear cloud data with one click.
• Cooperation with Platforms: Actively communicate with browser platforms like Microsoft and Google, submit technical explanations, and strive for early restoration of listings.

Suggestions for Users

In the current complex network security environment, the team also gave some general suggestions:

• Regularly check and uninstall extensions that have not been used for a long time.
• Try to install extensions from official stores and check developer information.
• If you find abnormal jumps or increased ads in the browser, investigate immediately.

For users who have already logged into WeTab/Infinity, the official statement promises that cloud data (bookmarks, configurations, etc.) will not be lost. Users can still continue to use it normally through the online version or the Chrome store (via Edge's "Allow extensions from other stores" feature).

Conclusion

This incident reminds us once again that the supply chain security of the browser extension ecosystem cannot be ignored. For old users of WeTab and Infinity, the timely clarification from the original team is undoubtedly reassuring. We look forward to these excellent productivity tools returning to the public eye soon after the third-party audit results are announced.

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Reference: WeTab/Infinity Official Statement