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Google pulls the plug on uBlock Origin, leaving over 30 million Chrome users susceptible to intrusive ads (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Alsephina@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Google's campaign against ad blockers across its services just got more aggressive. According to a report by PC World, the company has made some alterations to its extension support on Google Chrome.

Google Chrome recently changed its extension support from the Manifest V2 framework to the new Manifest V3 framework. The browser policy changes will impact one of the most popular adblockers (arguably), uBlock Origin.

The transition to the Manifest V3 framework means extensions like uBlock Origin can't use remotely hosted code. According to Google, it "presents security risks by allowing unreviewed code to be executed in extensions." The new policy changes will only allow an extension to execute JavaScript as part of its package.

Over 30 million Google Chrome users use uBlock Origin, but the tool will be automatically disabled soon via an update. Google will let users enable the feature via the settings for a limited period before it's completely scrapped. From this point, users will be forced to switch to another browser or choose another ad blocker.

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[-] dev_null@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm not saying what's "the correct play" or not, I'm refuting the claim all Chromium-based browsers are immediately affected, because I know of at least one that will keep V2 support.

But I will keep using Vivaldi. It will take me the same time to migrate to Firefox regardless if I do it today or a year from now when Vivaldi drops V2 support. I have nothing to gain by migrating sooner, but potentially much to gain by waiting.

Vivaldi might decide to keep support indefinitely,
Vivaldi might decide to update the built-in ad blocker to use UBlock Origin tech,
Google might backtrack the decision (hah!),
a whole different browser I want to try might come out in the meantime and I'd have to migrate twice,
Firefox might die after losing Google funding due to the monopoly ruling.
I will build a new PC in a year and it will be a good time for a software refresh,
Or, the most likely, none of this will happen, and I will migrate to Firefox then, if that's the best move at the time.

this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024

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