The coupon extension saved me $8 and then asked to read every website I visit

I installed a browser coupon extension while ordering shoes. It found a code, saved me $8, and immediately became the most successful piece of software I had installed all month.

Then I looked at its permissions.

The extension could read and change data on a broad set of websites. That may be necessary for an extension that detects checkout pages and tests codes, but the wording made the trade feel much larger than the discount. I use the same browser for email, banking, work tools, health insurance, and aimless late-night shopping. “Convenient at checkout” had quietly become “present across most of my browser.”

I do not know that this extension is doing anything improper. I also do not think “it came from the official extension store” answers every privacy question. My real mistake was installing it during checkout, when saving money felt urgent and reading permissions felt like a delay.

I removed it for now. The less dramatic options are to use a separate browser profile for shopping, allow access only when I click the extension if that control is available, or skip extensions and search for discounts manually. I can also read the current privacy information and recent permission history before deciding whether the benefit is worth keeping.

The $8 is not meaningless, especially if the extension saves money repeatedly. But I want to compare that value with the access it requests, not with a fantasy in which convenience has no data cost.

How do you evaluate a browser extension that needs broad access to perform its central feature? Is a shopping-only profile a practical boundary, or just a complicated ritual I will abandon after a week?