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Google to weaken ad blockers on Chrome in a push for security
(cybernews.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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An extension having access to everything on every page you visit is a potential security issue.
Whether that's an acceptable risk for you in order to have an extension that blocks ads is another question.
Extensions by definition are a security issue. For that matter, so is being connected to the Internet in the case of a browser.
As far as I know, the plan for Manifest V3 only included removing blocking from the WebRequest API and extensions using WebRequest could still see whatever activity they are given permission to view.
Correct, and the reasoning for removing blocking was performance.
Wouldn’t loading the ads impact performance moreso than loading them? Not really a browser nerd so no idea it just seems like blocking a piece of content from loading outright would be less demanding than loading it.
How the WebRequest API works is:
This is slow and will always be. Their change to remove blocking makes steps 2-4 a copy of the data instead of a synchronous call.
Now an ad can be slower, just by more data or bad JS. But that isn’t Googles concern because they sell those ads.
Ahhhh gotcha, thanks!