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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      • haui
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        681 month ago

        I‘m really anxious for firefox as google is the main financier afaik.

          • lnxtx
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            371 month ago

            I will happily donate.
            If, of course, money won’t go to the CEO.

            • @[email protected]
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              27 days ago

              it is lol, have you seen how much the ceo is paying herself?

              its kind of a reddit situaton, where money wouldnt be that much of an issue if it werent all for the ceo.

            • @[email protected]
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              -61 month ago

              A CEO is a needed possition, I know in the past the Brendan Eich was controversial in his political views, but Laura Chambers seems ok so far

              • @kugmo
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                1 month ago

                At least Brendan Eich was a developer, good on him for being Christian.

          • haui
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            101 month ago

            Not sure firefox will be on our side after the recent ad tracking debacle. If they implement one more anti consumer feature I‘m jumping ship.

            • @przmk
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              281 month ago

              Jump ship to what? Not like there’s s lot of choices out there. You could always try LibreWolf.

                • @przmk
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                  131 month ago

                  They plan a release for 2028. It’s going to be a while before it can be used for everyday browsing.

              • haui
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                41 month ago

                That would be my first address, assuming the librewolf folks will never accept anti community code, hopefully.

                If everything fails i‘m fine to join a small project and help with it. I have some skills and can contribute financially.

              • TWeaK
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                31 month ago

                Plenty of Firefox forks out there.

                • @[email protected]
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                  261 month ago

                  Purged of unwanted and intrusive features, UBO pre installed, and is pre configured for increased privacy.

            • @[email protected]
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              41 month ago

              It’s hard to take a project seriously for championing our privacy if the only communication options are Discord & Microsoft Github

              • haui
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                -11 month ago

                Feel free to offer hosting something else for them. Be the change you want to see.

                • @[email protected]
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                  21 month ago

                  There are free (both kinds) options to these problems if they can’t afford it—and that still isn’t an excuse to require all coms go thru US-based proprietary services with big privacy implications.

            • Possibly linux
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              11 month ago

              I am hopeful they will get some more corporate backing. We can donate all day but that is a drop in the bucket compared to a few million from some large companies

          • @[email protected]
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            1 month ago

            using a novel engine based on web standards.

            Now, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time…

        • @[email protected]
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          101 month ago

          IIRC, only like 2% of Mozilla spending goes towards FF (I may be misinterpreting something, but I remember 2% being thrown around), so funding FF without rest of Mozilla bullshit shouldn’t be that hard. Of course, since Mozilla did spend so little on FF, it’s a question how much they actually care about FF and what would happen if they lost access to their golden goose. They shouldn’t have problem funding FF, but they probably have other bullshit they don’t want to let go and that has more priority for them.

            • @[email protected]
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              151 month ago

              You are right, it was unfairly harsh wording, I apologize for that. Most of those products are super cool and important, I’ve kind of extrapolated it from what I’ve read in other posts about them spending too much on stuff like events and other, non-developemnt, related stuff that I actually never checked, while also not realizing that they also have a ton of other projects, which mixed with the dissapointment with the recent development about the Meta partnership led to me choosing that wording unfairly.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 month ago

          For now. They could default to yahoo and make money. Maybe not as much, but they could sustain browser development.

          Firefox is still far superior to chromium.

          • haui
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            21 month ago

            I agree. That could work. We‘ll see.

  • _haha_oh_wow_
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    581 month ago

    Remember like 2 weeks ago when Google’s very own ad networks were distributing malware?

    Pepperidge Farm remembers.

  • @[email protected]
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    471 month ago

    It’s not perfect but PiHole will still catch a lot of the ads if you have the know-how to set one up. Tis a relatively cheap and easy solution that has the benefit of being able to block ads network-wide, providing your router lets you set a custom DNS.

    https://pi-hole.net

    • @[email protected]
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      191 month ago

      Even if my Internet provider forced me to use their router I’d plug my own router in behind that one fuck that.

      • @[email protected]
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        71 month ago

        Some isp’s have been detecting the second router and giving people shit for it.

        But I’m with you on that, I don’t trust the isp’s backdoored router-modem. Hard pass.

        • youmaynotknow
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          61 month ago

          Some isp’s have been detecting the second router and giving people shit for it.

          Giving people shit how? This is the first time I hear something like this. In my case, my ISP does not allow bridging a router, so I NAT mine instead, and it works just fine.

          • @[email protected]
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            21 month ago

            Yeah, they can still tell that you’re Nat behind another router.

            But they don’t like it because it gives them less access to your network and more possibility for something to be wrong

            • @[email protected]
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              41 month ago

              I’ve never had an isp complain about me using my own router in the US, is this just common in other countries or have I just been lucky?

              • @[email protected]
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                41 month ago

                It’s a rarity afaik, I’ve only heard of one or two cases, but a concerning report to me personally.

                Though I’m Canadian so it’ll be a few years before it filters here (assuming it catches on)

            • Possibly linux
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              41 month ago

              How would they do that? Maybe by looking at ports? You could just lie and say you only have one device.

              • youmaynotknow
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                41 month ago

                The moment they see their ONT is registering only 1 device (the router) it’s clear everything is being routed via that.

                I have never not had a router natted behind my modem. They can see the amount of packets and data I use over the ISP, but that’s about it. On top of that my LANs and VLANs are all VPNd through NordVPN before anything hits the WAN and all DNS traffic goes though my Adguard Home and Quad9 as well, so there’s that.

              • @[email protected]
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                21 month ago

                There’s always NAT. You get one IP address, your router/wifi shares the network using NAT

                But ISPs aren’t looking for NAT, since everyone with wifi is using it

    • Possibly linux
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      51 month ago

      Don’t use Chrome. It has plenty of issues including backdoors by Google.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 month ago

      Second this, Pihole is great and protects every device on your network too - mobile phones, smart TVs, tablets, Nintendo Switches, etc.

      It’s wild how much telemetry is baked into stuff that you can just cut the nuts off of.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 month ago

      Its worth noting however this can cause weird problems since its system wide and even network wide if you set it up that way.

      As an example, my wifes Spotify podcasts didn’t work for months only for us to discover pihole was blocking the cdn Spotify uses.

  • @[email protected]
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    411 month ago

    Moved to Firefox some months ago, it’s fine. Small adjustment but browsers generally offer high interchangeability

  • @[email protected]
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    361 month ago

    You can get a pass till July 2025 by creating/setting a registry key that they made for businesses.

    Paste this in a .reg file and double click it.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome]
    "ExtensionManifestV2Availability"=dword:00000002
    
    • @[email protected]
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      391 month ago

      At this rate people should just cut the cord with google. Modifying reg files is almost as annoying as moving bookmarks over. Firefox + uBlock + pihole (if you’re feeling ambitious/want to block other crap that’s non-browser related) and you’re chillin.

        • @[email protected]
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          71 month ago

          Yea that’s why say, just as annoying. Which I guess for the PC illiterate registry edits are more dangerous?

          I personally moved off google about 2 years ago (started using start page as well) and haven’t looked back.

    • @[email protected]
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      351 month ago

      you could instead just download firefox, which isnt perfect either but still a huge improvement over any chromium browser

  • Nora
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    311 month ago

    And thus, this day will be remembered as the great browser migration.

  • @[email protected]
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    121 month ago

    I’m not sure what Mullvad is based on - i think it’s on Tor, which is Firefox based?

    I do use mostly LibreWolf, but if FF also went to shit, I wonder if Tor, and thus Mullvad, would keep on going or not. Because I suppose LibreWolf would have troubles with keeping up, if Mozilla would enshitify FF, since they would probably have to fork and continue development on their own.

    • NaibofTabr
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      151 month ago

      Browser engines are ridiculously complex, nearly on the level of operating systems. All of the Firefox forks are really just different UIs built around Gecko/Quantum - those other projects aren’t really maintaining their own engines, they’re dependent on Mozilla’s work to remain stable, secure and relevant.

      • @[email protected]
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        81 month ago

        Yeah, I know and that’s what I’m afraid of. I guess I’ll just have to come to terms with most websites not working in some obscure web browser that’s not feature-complete. Would actually help with my addiction, so it won’t be so bad, I guess.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 month ago

          Firefox works for nearly everything. The only stuff that doesn’t work for me is Xitter embeds, and this is a gift that keeps on giving.