Louis: new company page on owned it ltd, the uk private limited company (companies house 07755519) that publishes whatruns. covers the corporate background from companies house primary records (incorporated 2011 as braggnow ltd, renamed dec 2011, registered office birmingham b1 2lp, sic 63990), the directors, and the 2026 arnott wall of shame finding linking back to the whatruns product page.

2026-05-30T04:39:51Z

new company page on owned it ltd, the uk private limited company (companies house 07755519) that publishes whatruns. covers the corporate background from companies house primary records (incorporated 2011 as braggnow ltd, renamed dec 2011, registered office birmingham b1 2lp, sic 63990), the directors, and the 2026 arnott wall of shame finding linking back to the whatruns product page.

New page

{{CompanyCargo
|Founded=2011-08-30
|Industry=Browser extensions, Technographics
|Logo=
|ParentCompany=
|CompanyAlias=Braggnow Ltd, Ownedit Ltd
|Type=Private
|Headquarters=Birmingham, United Kingdom
|Website=https://www.whatruns.com/
|Description=UK publisher of the WhatRuns browser extension, named in a May 2026 security audit for exfiltrating visited URLs and AI chat content.
}}

'''Owned it Ltd''' is a United Kingdom private limited company (Companies House number 07755519) that publishes the [[WhatRuns]] browser extension, a technographic tool installed by roughly 400,000 Chrome users.<ref name="cws">{{Cite web |url=https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/whatruns/cmkdbmfndkfgebldhnkbfhlneefdaaip |title=WhatRuns - Chrome Web Store |publisher=Google |access-date=2026-05-30}}</ref><ref name="ch-overview">{{Cite web |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07755519 |title=OWNED IT LTD overview |website=Find and update company information |publisher=Companies House |access-date=2026-05-30}}</ref> On May 11, 2026, independent security researcher James Arnott classified WhatRuns at the ''Confirmed'' tier of his ''AI Chat Scraping Extension Wall of Shame'' after observing the extension transmit every visited URL & every AI chat session to remote servers with no obfuscation and no in-product notice to the user.<ref name="arnott-wos">{{Cite web |url=https://amibeingpwned.com/blog/ai-chat-scraper-wall-of-shame |title=AI Chat Scraping Extension Wall of Shame |last=Arnott |first=James |website=Am I Being Pwned? |date=2026-05-11 |access-date=2026-05-30}}</ref>

== Consumer-impact summary ==
* Publishes a Chrome extension installed by approximately 400,000 users that an independent security audit confirms exfiltrates visited URLs & AI chat content.<ref name="cws" /><ref name="arnott-wos" />
* The extension carries a Chrome Web Store ''"Featured"'' badge & a publisher-verification notice stating the publisher has ''"a good record with no history of violations,"'' which sit alongside the documented exfiltration behavior.<ref name="cws" />
* No user-facing disclosure of the data collection appears in the extension itself, per Arnott's audit.<ref name="arnott-wos" />

== Background ==
Owned it Ltd is registered with Companies House under number 07755519 & holds status Active.<ref name="ch-overview" /> The company was incorporated on August 30, 2011 under the name '''Braggnow Ltd''' & was renamed Owned it Ltd on December 2, 2011.<ref name="ch-overview" /> It operates under SIC code 63990, ''"Other information service activities not elsewhere classified."''<ref name="ch-overview" />

The registered office sits at 11 Brindley Place, Brunswick Square, Birmingham, B1 2LP. The address was moved from the company's prior office at Faraday Wharf, Birmingham Science Park, B7 4BB on October 29, 2023.<ref name="ch-filings">{{Cite web |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07755519/filing-history |title=OWNED IT LTD filing history |website=Find and update company information |publisher=Companies House |access-date=2026-05-30}}</ref>

Two of the original directors remain active: Sonu Nirmal Kumar Bubna & Manoj Vadakinazhikath Krishnapillai, both appointed on August 30, 2011.<ref name="ch-officers">{{Cite web |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07755519/officers |title=OWNED IT LTD people |website=Find and update company information |publisher=Companies House |access-date=2026-05-30}}</ref> A third director, Shashank Deshmukh, was appointed on September 5, 2011 & resigned on June 1, 2013.<ref name="ch-officers" />

== Products ==
The company's primary public product is [[WhatRuns]], a browser extension that identifies the software stack running on a visited website, including frameworks, analytics tools, WordPress plugins, & fonts.<ref name="cws" /> WhatRuns was soft-launched in August 2017 & posted to Hacker News on August 25, 2017, where the developer wrote that the extension had been ''"picked up by the Chrome team."''<ref name="hn">{{Cite web |url=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15098028 |title=Show HN: WhatRuns - A free alternative to Builtwith |website=Hacker News |date=2017-08-25 |access-date=2026-05-30}}</ref> The Chrome Web Store listing for WhatRuns names the developer as ''"Ownedit Ltd, 11 Brindley Place, Birmingham B1 2LP, GB,"'' with a contact address of <code>hello@whatruns.com</code>, & reports approximately 400,000 users.<ref name="cws" />

== Incidents ==

=== 2026 amibeingpwned Wall of Shame ===
{{Main|WhatRuns}}
On May 11, 2026, security researcher James Arnott published the ''AI Chat Scraping Extension Wall of Shame'' on amibeingpwned.com, listing eight browser extensions that his testing showed were transmitting browsing history or AI chat content to publisher-controlled servers. WhatRuns appeared at position six on the list, classified at the ''Confirmed'' tier alongside the note that the extension reports approximately 400,000 users & carries the Chrome Web Store ''Featured'' badge.<ref name="arnott-wos" />

Arnott described the observed behavior in direct terms:

<blockquote>''WhatRuns exfiltrates every URL you visit, alongside AI chats. No exceptions here, they don't even bother to obfuscate the requests which is nice to see, although there's no indication to the user this exfiltration is happening.''</blockquote><ref name="arnott-wos" />

Related coverage of the broader browser-extension data-collection pattern is at [[Browser extension AI chat exfiltration]].



== See also ==
* [[WhatRuns]]
* [[Browser extension AI chat exfiltration]]
* [[SimilarWeb]]
* [[Sensor Tower]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Companies]]
[[Category:United Kingdom companies]]
[[Category:Browser extension publishers]]

Owned it Ltd - Revision history