Paul Bischoff, security and privacy advocate for Comparitech.com, is today warning website owners who use the Simple Share Buttons plug-in for WordPress that simply clicking to “accept” the terms and conditions of the latest update could allow their websites to subject users to things like adware and other threats.
The nature of the update essentially coerces users into making a decision that sacrifices the privacy of readers. With over 100,000 active installs according to WordPress.org, the popular plug-in is used by everyone from casual bloggers and small businesses to large publishers. Even if just a fraction of these users blindly hit the accept button in order to make the message disappear, that would lead to thousands of websites exposing visitors to adware and other threats.
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