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Ad-block developers fear end is near for their extensions:
Seven months from now, assuming all goes as planned, Google Chrome will drop support for its legacy extension platform, known as Manifest v2 (Mv2). This is significant if you use a browser extension to, for instance, filter out certain kinds of content and safeguard your privacy.
Google's Chrome Web Store is supposed to stop accepting Mv2 extension submissions sometime this month. As of January 2023, Chrome will stop running extensions created using Mv2, with limited exceptions for enterprise versions of Chrome operating under corporate policy. And by June 2023, even enterprise versions of Chrome will prevent Mv2 extensions from running.
The anticipated result will be fewer extensions and less innovation, according to several extension developers.
Browser extensions such as Ghostery Privacy Ad Blocker, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger, along with scripting extensions including TamperMonkey, which are each designed to block adverts and other content and/or protect one's privacy online, are expected to function less effectively, if they can even make the transition from Mv2 to the new approach: Manifest v3.
"If you asked me if we can have a Manifest v3 version of Privacy Badger, my answer is yes, we can and we will," said Alexei Miagkov, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a phone interview with The Register. "But the problem is more insidious. It's that Manifest v3 caps the certain capabilities of extensions and cuts off innovation potential."
Google argues otherwise and maintains its platform renovation will meet developers' needs, including those making tools for content blocking and privacy. The internet titan, which declined to comment on the record, maintains that Mv3 aims to improve privacy by limiting extensions' access to sensitive data and that it has been working with extension developers to balance their needs with those of users.
Google points to past endorsements, such as remarks provided by Sofia Lindberg, tech lead of ad amelioration biz Eyeo, which makes Adblock Plus. "We've been very pleased with the close collaboration established between Google's Chrome Extensions Team and our own engineering team to ensure that ad-blocking extensions will still be available after Manifest v3 takes effect."
[...] Google began work on Manifest v3, the successor to Mv2, in late 2018, ostensibly to make extensions more secure, performant, and private. The company's extension platform renovation was necessary – because extension security problems were rampant – and immediately controversial. An ad company making security claims that, coincidentally, hinder user-deployed content and privacy defenses looks like self-interest.
And Mv3 remains the subject of ongoing debate as the extension platform capabilities and APIs continue to be hammered out. But it has been adopted, with some caveats, by other browser makers, including Apple and Mozilla. Makers of Chromium-based browsers inherit Mv3 and Microsoft has already endorsed the new spec.
Others building atop Chromium like Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi have indicated interest in continuing to support Mv2, though it's unclear whether that will be practical beyond June of next year. If Google removes the Mv2 code from Chromium, maintaining the code in a separate Chromium fork may prove to be too much trouble.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2022, @04:50PM (6 children)
See my subject-line above & in the end? I'll be RIGHT AS RAIN, as usual!
Custom hosts files gain me the following list of benefits (summary of where custom hosts files are extremely useful) INCLUDING my daily scanning of SECURITY SITES vs. KNOWN sources of threats in C2 servers of malwares of most all kinds & I DOUBT your ADBLOCKERS do THAT in their lists (well, UBlock MIGHT since it USES HOSTS FILES too but that's ONLY IF they fill their lists with that as I do, daily & I have nearly 10 MILLION of those now to date - hosts can & DO here @ least:
Protect you vs. known malicious sites/servers (beyond malicious adbanners: See 2-6 next)
Protect you vs. fastflux botnets + stop communications back to their C&C servers
Protect you vs. dynamic dns botnets + stop communications back to their C&C servers
Protect you vs. DGA/domain generation algorithm botnets + stop communications back to their C&C servers
Protect you vs. downed DNS servers (adds reliability)
Protect you vs. DNS redirect poisoned dns servers
Get you past a dns block list you may not agree with
Added "anonymity": Keeping you off dns request logs
Block trackers (both ads and dns request logs)
Block spam mail malicious payload link sources
Block phishing mail malicious payload link sources
Speed you up for websurfing by adblocking & also hardcoding favorite sites
Truly UNIVERSAL PROTECTION for ANY webbound program (e.g. - stand-alone email programs & since any OS, even on smartphones, has a BSD drived IP stack).
More screen "real estate" (no more ads appear onscreen eating up CPU, Memory, & other forms of I/O too - bonus!).
Custom hosts files work on ANY & ALL webbound apps (browser plugins do not).
Custom hosts files offer a better, faster, more efficient way, & safer way to surf the web
Hosts files do all of those things above & block ads (better than addons) more efficiently in cpu cycles + memory usage https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/05/14/adblock-pluss-effect-on-firefoxs-memory-usage/ [mozilla.org]
Hosts give you direct easy texteditor controlled data for all of the above
Faster & MORE EFFICIENT operation vs. browser plugins (which "layer on" ontop of slower Ring 3/RPL 3/usermode browsers increasing messagepassing overheads slowing them more & they're written in slower INTERPRETED languages (e.g. AdBlock = python/perl/javascript)- Whereas by way of comparison, the hosts file operates @ the Ring 0/RPL 0/Kernelmode of operation (far faster) as a filter for the IP stack itself, written in C & Assembly language (run directly @ Operating System startup w/ the IP stack, making browser/usermode advertiser owned 'solutions' like Ghostery + AdBlock, advertisers crippled http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/06/google-and-others-reportedly-pay-adblock-plus-to-show-you-ads-anyway/ [techcrunch.com] and ABP too http://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-microsoft-amazon-paying-adblock-115744964.html [yahoo.com] AND redundant)).
NOW as far as DNS over HTTPS which imo is what they use to DEFEAT hosts files (since there was NO OTHER REAL WAY on a standalone PC)?
You can STILL turn that off in FireFox in TRR settings here:
1] Type about:config in the location bar
2] Search for network.trr (TRR stands for Trusted Recursive Resolver – it is the DoH Endpoint used by Firefox.)
3] Change network.trr.mode to 2 to enable DoH. This will try and use DoH but will fallback to insecure DNS under some circumstances like captive portals. (Use mode 5 to disable DoH under all circumstances.)
On that last part? Poor attempt @ a SELL of SECURITY - DNS is MASSIVELY insecure, period. What they CAN do to help it isn't generally implemented for ALL DNS servers.
STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES' MOUTHS @ Mozilla, here https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/06/01/improving-dns-privacy-in-firefox/ [mozilla.org]
(& you SHOULD - if you're concerned about SECURITY in terms of TRACKING etc.? That IS truly CENTRALIZED tracking because IF you THINK they're not logging access to their CDN's etc. (which IS how many VPN's even work)? You ARE wrong... & for browsers that WON'T ALLOW THAT? Well, fuck using them then - simple)
LASTLY - someone above said "but, But, BUT 'hosts eat resources'" Ok then - well, so does PILING ON 50 addons to do what hosts does BY ITSELF & yes, @ KERNEL LEVEL SPEED + FIRST via the API itself in GetHostByAddr iirc - though THAT is "nullified" nowadays by DNS over HTTPS for those that do NOT know the above - NOT FOR ME though, again, PER the above!
Next I'll probably hear "but, But, BUT large hosts SLOW YOU DOWN" - well, no, in the END they speed you up BY BLOCKING OUT ALL OF WHAT THEY DO ABOVE, buying back & EXCEEDING what ads/trackers etc. STEAL from you (including your electricity bill going up RUNNING THOSE SCRIPTS clientside vs. using ISAPI/NSAPI old school server side stuff - that's a HIDDEN one MOST tend to overlook mind you also). Parse time of hosts in KERNEL MODE is far less than USERMODE SLOW your browser + addons operate in (increasing messagepassing in BOTH as well as far as overheads) as they PROCESS SCRIPTS/ADS.
(Thus, per this article: Your addons will soon NOT WORK or will be SO CRIPPLED as in the case of browser addons for that purpose that they MIGHT AS WELL NOT WORK e.g. limiting HOW MANY ads/scripts/trackers you can block - NEW NEWS: Hosts block script sources too, that is what I use the ONLY addon I use in NoScript for - it shows me what to block in hosts too as far as scripts... but I still combine them for layered security)
APK
P.S.=> Prepping for nitpickers (go ahead - lol, I've BEEN thru that before & BLEW AWAY all comers so called "points" with FUCKING EASE) - & I would've posted this earlier BUT you've been TRYING (& failing) @ blocking my IP address SO it's gotten so I won't post here MUCH anymore here ON THIS SITE as it's a "wee bit of a PAIN IN THE ASS" to get around your BULLSHIT that way here in CENSORBEAMS (misspell intentional) @ least, well other than ONCE IN AWHILE being compelled to do so, & YES this time I am to give you something to THINK about like I did in this post about VAXINES (intentional misspell) https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=46034&page=1&cid=1197563#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] OR on how to optimize code https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=46096&page=2&cid=1198315#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] (PASCAL always HAS rocked vs. C etc. too) for which in BOTH cases you ALL UPRATED ME on to the max & yes, which I am TOTALLY correct about & PITY those who took it - same idea here - see my subject... apk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12 2022, @01:05AM (1 child)
No I won't. Somebody will just build a GTK+ webkit browser with integrated adblock.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12 2022, @02:36PM
See my subject & https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=49747&page=1&cid=1252718#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] that I built LONG AGO to process hosts files (better than ANYTHING ELSE OUT THERE that does the same thing (mainly in that I wrote it in fastest HLL language there is for stringwork in Pascal which has NO REAL PEER in its stringwork speed & does that work SAFER (vs. C which has terrible buffer overflow potential on that note due to null-terminated strings it does) AND that it offers a false positive filter list you can easily populate yourself to avoid blocking sites you don't want blocked (such as the hardcoded to IP addresses @ the TOP of hosts it also creates that gets you to sites AS FAST AS POSSIBLE & DIRECTLY)).
THEN, you should see the GREAT MOVIE "The Natural" with Robert Redford (free on TUBI.TV) here https://tubitv.com/movies/625260/the-natural [tubitv.com]
APK
P.S.=> Why the latter? Well - I did what HE DID & BUILT ONE MYSELF as "I wanted it to be a very special bat" as Robert Redford days when he was asked by Wilford Brimley "Where'd you get this bat?" @ batting practice... apk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12 2022, @03:26AM (1 child)
You could write a webkit browser in pascal that pulls the latest APK hosts automatically and writes them to /etc/hosts: https://wiki.freepascal.org/Gtk+3 [freepascal.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12 2022, @12:44PM
Already done by "yours truly" as far back as 2001 in APK hosts file engine https://www.start64.com/index.php/64-bit-software/64bit-security/5851-apk-hosts-file-engine-10-32-64-bit [start64.com]
* :)
APK
P.S.=> I also ported it from Windows to BSD variants (even MacOS but pointless there as since Monterey or slightly before that Apple CRIPPLED hosts files & doesn't allow easy text config file changes like nsswitch in Linux) & Linux too... apk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12 2022, @04:00PM (1 child)
hey why do you write like an escaped Church of the SubGenius columnist/cultist preparing for Dobbs Day?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 12 2022, @04:32PM
Why can't you prove anything I wrote here is wrong https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=49747&page=1&cid=1252547#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
?
* Could it be that I am SO CORRECT that you fools that trusted browser addons for adblocking are using are INFERIOR, SLOWER & INEFFICIENT vs. hosts files?
(Answer that You pitiful TROLLING loser you are HIDING behind UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous AC... lol!)
APK
P.S.=> Answer = YES to the bolded question I put down above: YOU ARE PARALYZED BY FACTS I PUT OUT regarding hosts SUPERIORITY on MANY FRONTS above - You just prove it's IMPOSSIBLE to prove me wrong when I have actual tests shown in that link above proving it on addons being INFERIOR/INEFFICIENT as well as SLOWER in usermode addons vs. KERNELMODE hosts operations (in addition to the FACT you have to go to hosts & the IP Stack itself, FIRST, due to the GetHostByAddr API call that though they TRIED to shove you onto CENTRALLY MONITORED DoH/DNS over HTTPS bullshit that is easily countered by "yours truly" & MOZILLA network.trr.mode = 5 in FireFox )