Comment by rendaw
It's also a security risk though, as in someone could take it over and push a bad update at any time... I have a few extensions installed but I'm terrified of adding more, even though there are parts of my browsing experience that could be significantly improved.
I really wish there were a middle ground, like an external extension manager where you could opt into updates, with reproducible builds, changelogs, etc.
My mitigation for this: Any extension that I grant serious permissions, I copy it locally, and then install that copy. This effectively disables all updates! Still requires I trust the extension as is, but doesn't require I trust the extension developers forever. And I use this [1] extension to easily download the source for any other extension.
[1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/chrome-extension-so...