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.
Not only intrusive ads, intrusive trackers too
Using the internet without an adblocker is genuinely dangerous. Everyone really should be using uBlock Origin. Using a web browser that prevents uBlock Origin puts you in danger
Firefox supremacy validated once again
We need more options
Yes, but until we have them, Firefox is the best option.
*librewolf
Why does it need to run remotely hosted code though?
Because the ads constantly change across the websites. Adblocking is naturally a cat-and-mouse dynamic. However, the “remotely hosted code” Adblockers use is not exactly “code” (as in a JavaScript code, for example), it’s more a Regex code containing patterns for the different websites and different behaviors (for example, the pattern for the pesky HTML element containing the ad, or the pattern for some ad-serving domain). Google is extrapolating their meaning of “remotely hosted code” purposely, so they can “justify” their measures.
Fair. Pulling rules makes sense. Code wouldn’t. (I wouldn’t consider regex as code.)
Thanks for the details.
This is the perfect time to go aggressive on telling your friends to switch to Firefox
In their eyes they just made 30 million more customers.
Fucking parasites.
They made Firefox a good number of new customers.
All 10 of us
I‘m really anxious for firefox as google is the main financier afaik.
It is a worry. I think we might end up needing to pay for Firefox ourselves.
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.
Jump ship to what? Not like there’s s lot of choices out there. You could always try LibreWolf.
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.
Netscape Navigator and Opera raise their hand
Wait, Navigator still exists?
Well, Opera is also based on Chromium.
Librewolf is just a reskinned Firefox.
Purged of unwanted and intrusive features, UBO pre installed, and is pre configured for increased privacy.
Plenty of Firefox forks out there.
deleted by creator
They plan a release for 2028. It’s going to be a while before it can be used for everyday browsing.
I will happily donate.
If, of course, money won’t go to the CEO.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 for the ceo.
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
A CEO is a needed possition
Ha! Good one…
oh wait. You’re serious…
How is a ceo needed? They do no work. Their entire job is to rake in cash from workers.
All a ceo needs is a guillotine.
Ok, granted that the CEO concept is not the only way to lead a company.
But you do need a leader, someone who can make decisions for the company, someone to make everyday decisions that are not fun, but needed to make the company work.
We can absolutely argue about their compensation, but thst is another argument alltogether.
Right.
And a football team doesn’t need a quarterback.
🤦🏼♂️
Yes, many of them are assholes, doesn’t change the need for the leadership.
At least Brendan Eich was a developer, good on him for being Christian.
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.
A list of Mozilla’s “other bullshit”:
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.
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.
I agree. That could work. We‘ll see.
look up ladybird. we may soon have a 3rd browser!
In 2026
That’s supoosed to be the preview release date on Linux and MacOS…
If they can stay funded I believe them
Looks promising. Lets see where it goes. https://github.com/LadybirdBrowser/ladybird
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
It’s hard to take a project seriously for championing our privacy if the only communication options are Discord & Microsoft Github
Feel free to offer hosting something else for them. Be the change you want to see.
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.
using a novel engine based on web standards.
Now, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time…
2026 isn’t soon.
Firefox isn’t exactly “the good guys” either
Between two evils, Firefox is the comparative good guy. There’s not a chance in hell I’m using anything based on Chromium, I’ve been using FF for close to two decades now and I’ve experienced very few dealbreaker issues.
I prefer flawed but trying guys to guys with zero morals that farm every ounce of data they can.
Firefox has telemetry too
And it can be turned off.
100% of it? Nope.
What are you stating cannot be turned off?
This sounds baseless without any evidence.
You expect good guys?
No
I agree but isn’t the choice between “the terrible guys” and “the okayish guys”?
If you don’t know the good guys, then yes that’s your choice
So who are the good guys, mind you telling? As far as I’m aware, currently it’s a choice between Chromium based browsers and Firefox and its forks. So really just 2 options in the grand scheme of things.
Tell me you’re poor without telling me you’re poor
Stop using chrome and move to Firefox, also stop using Windows and more to Linux.
Google is Mozilla’s dad so I’m not sure how long we will be able to use FF with v2.
Even a short-lived chance to cling to Fx is worth something. Hopefully they will team up with others to port the missing parts to v3.
Or the Mullvad browser, Mullvad’s fork of FF with zero ads with help from the Tor project.
Librewolf is also good if you prefer flatpaks
Firefox is now owned by ads company. By default there are enabled telemetrics and moreover companies starts to ignore compability of their web services with browser which market share is lower than 2% even goverments stops considering that browser. Mozzila instead of optimization of their browser spend time introduceing features like AI. I was trying to like that browser but mozzila effectively does not allow me. Now btw. I use just vivaldi. I know this is not fully open source.
Which “ads company”? No offense, just curious.
Says Mozilla owns the ad company. Not sure where it says the ad company owns mozilla
Were Firefox to go bad, we would use a non-bad fork off Firefox. It’s open source.
They are not independent. It all soft fork. Everything depends on firefox. If firefox die all the forks will die with too.
So you use Chromium…
Screw you Google. Enjoy your antitrust.
I’ve heard reasonably good reports about ublock origin lite (uBOL), the manifest V3 implementation. I haven’t made the jump yet, though.
It is never going to work the same. They are talking about dropping it entirely.
Come to firefox or even better librewolf dont let google ass fuck you.
It may still block a relatively large part of the ads, but uBlock is not just about blocking ads. Large parts of it’s filterlists are about blocking data mining, shitty cookie prompts and similar things.
I has some deal breaking limitations:
- No filter list that can be updated, you have to update the whole extension to update filters. This adds delay as it has to go through Google verification process, they could even refuse some updates.
- Not every type of rules are available on MV3, so it has to drop some filters.
- No CNAME-uncloacking.
This is the bargaining stage of the five stages of grief.
Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome.
Maybe. I’m on Firefox, but a lot of my family members are on Chrome and I’m not looking forward to the calls ;)
Friends don’t let friends run Chrome.
Switched to Firefox in 2023 and it’s wild how much shit just works now.
Totally agree. Many people who keep using Chrome have a VERY outdated view of what Firefox can do. That’s a shame, but it’s unfortunately an aspect of human nature that negative impressions are SUPER hard to change.
Couldn’t have said it better.
And thus, this day will be remembered as the great browser migration.
I’m not sure if it’s related, but I’ve been getting popups that prevent navigation away from pages on the Google Android browsers
Cat and mouse game, it’s better to DNS block ads.
DNS blocker will be as useful or maybe even less than ubo lite. E.g. it just cannot block youtube ads like ubo does.
Also Google and removed both bypass your DNS blocker. They use their own DNS server and DoH protocol to resolve their ad servers. DoH is also hard to block because it uses port 443 with https.
The best bet right now is to use either a DNS or even better: packet filter level blocker such as zenarmor; together with ublock origin on firefox. Nothing else will not really block tracking in 2024.
Or, here me out, don’t use Chome
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.
mullvad browser is based on FF
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.
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.
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.
Even cheaper to just stop using chrome
Even if my Internet provider forced me to use their router I’d plug my own router in behind that one fuck that.
My provider, small one from my town, or the attendant just decided to give me the password. After months, I found out how to extract the configurations and used my old router instead.
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.
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.
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
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?
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)
Don’t NAT. Just bump in the wire firewall plus local DNS server.
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
How would they do that? Maybe by looking at ports? You could just lie and say you only have one device.
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.
How do they know that it isn’t just a single device network?
Why do you trust NordVPN more than your ISP ? Is your ISP known to be especially bad ?
Probably just MAC address lookups, but also possibly something weird like “ttl “ stats
The MAC address would match the out bound interface of the router
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.
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.
Don’t use Chrome. It has plenty of issues including backdoors by Google.
