Google Is Hobbling Popular Ad Blocker uBlock Origin on Chrome

Users of the popular uBlock Origin extension on Google Chrome might need to make the switch to a new browser. Or maybe cave and subscribe to YouTube Premium—features like offline downloads, background listening, and unlimited music streaming make it a decent value. Regardless, uBlock Origin is getting deprecated on Chrome as Google completes the process of migrating extensions to the new Manifest V3 standard, which it says improves privacy and security. uBlock Origin Lite will continue to function. Google has been working on this transition for many years. Core to the changes in Manifest V3 is an update to the Web Request API that limits how much information extensions can collect from users’ browsers. Gizmodo explained in 2019 that the now-deprecated version of the API “requires users to grant permission for Chrome to pass along all information in a network request, and that can include private data such as emails and photos.” The new API in Manifest V3 allows ad-blockers to block co ... Read full article.