Millions of Chrome users might soon lose access to their favorite extensions. As mentioned in Google’s support bulletin, Google plans to end support for popular ad blockers such as uBlock Origin and other extensions on the Manifest V2 framework. Google says the move is because of security and privacy concerns.
Google started warning users of the change back in August, stating that it plans to move from the Manifest V2 framework to V3 to protect its users. Google says that it’s doing this “to better protect your privacy and security, Chrome and the Chrome Web Store require extensions to be up-to-date with new requirements. With this, Chrome may disable extensions that don’t meet these requirements.”
People have expressed their anger about the changes across social media. For example, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney in a post on X (formerly Twitter) wrote: “Google using its dominant Windows browser market share anticompetitively to shore up its ad monopoly by blocking ad blockers.”
Google using its dominant Windows browser market share anticompetitively to shore up its ad monopoly by blocking ad blockers – https://t.co/gNU3vwwwTZ
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) October 12, 2024
SquareX also stated on its X account that it claims to have discovered that regardless of the stricter control in Manifest V3, attackers can still create malicious extensions.
This is a huge deal since it will leave over 30 million Chrome users exposed to intrusive ads and send them on a mission to find a replacement. When you access uBlock Origin, Google recommends using other alternatives such as uBlock Origin Lite, Adblock Plus, Stands AdBlocker, or Ghostery Tracker & Ad Blocker.
Google also says that it wants to give users more control over what extensions can do, and with Manifest V3, it will move the background context to service workers that will run only when needed.
Manifest V3 eliminates “the ability for an extension to use remotely hosted code, which presents security risks by allowing unreviewed code to be executed in extensions. With this change, an extension can only execute JavaScript that is included within its package and subject to review by the Chrome Web Store.”
So far, there is no official information as to when the migration deadline will be, but rumors may indicate that it could be in the coming months.
