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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 4 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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[-] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 163 points 4 months ago

In their eyes they just made 30 million more customers.

Fucking parasites.

[-] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 102 points 4 months ago

They made Firefox a good number of new customers.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 67 points 4 months ago

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

[-] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 39 points 4 months ago

It is a worry. I think we might end up needing to pay for Firefox ourselves.

[-] lnxtx@feddit.nl 34 points 4 months ago

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

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[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 10 points 4 months 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@sh.itjust.works 27 points 4 months ago

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

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[-] kusivittula@sopuli.xyz 19 points 4 months ago

look up ladybird. we may soon have a 3rd browser!

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 12 points 4 months ago

Looks promising. Lets see where it goes. https://github.com/LadybirdBrowser/ladybird

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[-] feoh@lemmy.ml 105 points 4 months ago

Friends don't let friends run Chrome.

[-] LoamImprovement@beehaw.org 19 points 4 months ago

Switched to Firefox in 2023 and it's wild how much shit just works now.

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[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 12 points 4 months ago

Couldn't have said it better.

[-] foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 83 points 4 months ago

Not only intrusive ads, intrusive trackers too

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[-] Yor@hexbear.net 62 points 4 months ago

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 59 points 4 months ago

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

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[-] TaintPuncher@lemmy.ml 49 points 4 months 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

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 21 points 4 months ago

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

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[-] variants@possumpat.io 20 points 4 months ago

Even cheaper to just stop using chrome

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[-] zod000@lemmy.ml 48 points 4 months ago

Screw you Google. Enjoy your antitrust.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

1000002761

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 44 points 4 months ago

Its a good thing I've been using Firefox for almost 2 decades then.

[-] Ranger@lemmy.blahaj.zone 42 points 4 months ago

Stop using chrome and move to Firefox, also stop using Windows and more to Linux.

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[-] Modva@lemmy.world 41 points 4 months ago

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

[-] panicnow@lemmy.world 37 points 4 months 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

[-] blackwateropeth@lemmy.world 40 points 4 months 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.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 10 points 4 months ago

Moving bookmarks takes about 10 seconds to do.

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[-] Kekzkrieger@feddit.org 35 points 4 months ago

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

[-] crazyminner@lemmy.ml 35 points 4 months ago

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

[-] MiraculousMM@hexbear.net 18 points 4 months ago

Firefox supremacy validated once again

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[-] charonn0@startrek.website 15 points 4 months ago

Bust this trust.

[-] Mikina@programming.dev 13 points 4 months 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@infosec.pub 19 points 4 months 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.

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[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 13 points 4 months ago

mullvad browser is based on FF

[-] jsomae@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 months ago

This is the perfect time to go aggressive on telling your friends to switch to Firefox

[-] Mikina@programming.dev 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

If it keeps going on like this, it won't be long before I'll just say fuck it and switch to elinks...

Hmm, on that note - is there any CLI web browser that can do javascript and css? Because iirc, elinks doesn't, though I havent used it in years.

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this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024

697 points (99.3% liked)

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