The Case Against New Tab Hijacking (And How to Do It Right) "New tab hijacking" is the dark pattern of replacing someone's new tab without clearly communicating what you're doing, why, or how to undo it. You've probably experienced it: you install some extension for an unrelated purpose, and suddenly your new tab is full of sponsored links and tracking pixels. This is not what I built. But building a new tab extension that people actually want forced me to think carefully about the ethics of this space. Why new tab extensions have a bad reputation There's a graveyard of new tab extensions that were: Bundled with other software without user consent Stuffed with ads that impersonated useful content Monetized through user data collection Difficult or impossible to remove Browsers now require explicit user permission to replace the new tab ( chrome_url_overrides.newtab ), which helps. But the reputation damage is done. Users are rightfully suspicious.…