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.
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
Even cheaper to just stop using chrome
Don’t use Chrome. It has plenty of issues including backdoors by Google.
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.
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.