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posted by martyb on Friday August 02 2019, @06:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the when-the-new-shiny-is-not-always-better dept.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/08/01/warning-issued-over-google-chrome-ad-blocking-plans/#75c4a925219a

Google's plans to limit ad blockers in Chrome have already led many users to consider switching browsers. People's anger was made worse by the confirmation that the only people who will avoid the changes to the way ad blockers work in Chrome will be Google's enterprise users. Advertising is at the heart of Google's business model and so unsurprisingly, users have been questioning the software giant's motives.

And now, another prominent voice has entered the debate. Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says the move will not help security and in fact, will probably hinder it.

The plans, dubbed Manifest V3, represent a major transformation to Chrome extensions including a revamp of the permissions system. As a result, modern ad blockers such as uBlock Origin—which uses Chrome's webRequest API to block ads before they're downloaded–won't work. This is because Manifest V3 sees Google halt the webRequest API's ability to block a particular request before it's loaded. The plans are earmarked for release into the Google Canary channel around now.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:31AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:31AM (#874936)

    I stopped trusting browsers and extensions to do the right thing a long time ago. While I do use uMatrix and hosts file, I've recently begun using a Pi-Hole for the bulk of blocking on my home network. Not as elegant and certainly not as portable as an extension but perhaps we will be using cheap "ad blockers on a USB stick" in the future. At some point I may just stop using the Internet for anything other than banking/bills. Not as a protest but rather because it's quickly becoming intolerable to use.

    I just spent two weeks completely unplugged from the news and it was the single most healthy thing I've done in a while. It took years but the water eventually became hot enough for this frog to jump out and I imagine the same will someday be true for computers and phones. I would be curious to know how others feel about it. Is there a threshold where the default value proposition of browsers and operating systems becomes unpalatable and pushing back with hacks/tweaks just isn't worth it?