

The reason for this is that you need to create an account first on the TunnelBear website before you can start to use the extension. The installation works without issues but when you try to connect to the VPN you will notice that this does not work. You use it to enable and disable the VPN connection, switch server locations and manage your account.

TunnnelBear Beta adds an icon to Chrome's main toolbar that displays a configuration menu on activation. The privacy policy of the service provides additional information. The extension does not communicate with third-party websites or services.

This is only used to allow to communicate with the extension, for instance to sign you in automatically after you sign up on the website. The permission to "Communicate with cooperating websites" is requested by the extension during installation. While that is a limitation, one benefit of this approach is simpler setup and installation. Since you install the extension only in one browser, it is only working in that browser and not in other programs running on the system. The main difference between browser-based VPN extensions and VPN services that you set up or install on a computer is the environment limitation.
