The last year has seen a rise in the number of websites hogging visitor’s CPU and browser resources by surreptitiously mining for cryptocurrencies while you surf.

Sites like Pirate Bay have found themselves in hot water after visitors discovered it had added CoinHive’s crypto-mining tool which, according to the company’s marketing materials, allows you to “monetize your business with your users’ CPU power.”

Well, crypto-mining may be a way for websites to generate income if they’ve found alternative methods (such as advertising, subscriptions, or sponsorship) don’t work for them but the impact on visiting computers is typically too much for many users to bear – and is particularly unforgivable if the CPU-intensive calculations are being done without consent.

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