I scanned Chrome extension manifests for chrome_settings_overrides and found 23 extensions silently routing 758,000 users' searches through hidden monetization networks.

The pattern: install a free extension (satellite imagery, maps, news reader), your default search gets quietly replaced and every query goes through the operator's middleware before reaching a search network, generating affiliate revenue you never consented to.

Key findings:

• 8 distinct brokers behind these extensions. If one extension gets pulled, another goes up under a different name.
• Several extensions have zero functionality beyond the search override
• One extension affirmatively claims "We don't track your searches" while its own privacy policy says otherwise
• One uses runtime declarativeNetRequest injection so the real behavior is invisible to static analysis

The `hspart` parameter in the final search redirect URL is the clustering key. One value maps an entire broker network regardless of extension name, domain, or publisher identity.

Full report: https://malext.io/reports/SearchJack/