Google has presented the changes as a benefit to privacy, security, and performance. Others, however, may be more severely impacted. It won’t be a problem for some extensions: Adblock Plus, one of the most popular ad blockers, has come out in favor of the MV3 changes - though it’s worth noting that the extension has a financial relationship with Google. Instead of monitoring all data in a network request, the new API forces extension makers to specify rules in advance about how certain types of traffic should be handled, with the extension able to perform a more narrow set of actions when a rule is triggered. Under the new specification, the blocking version of the Web Request API has been removed and replaced with an API called Declarative Net Request. So it has been Google’s rationale for changing its functions in Manifest V3. But the same feature can be used maliciously to hijack users’ login credentials or insert extra ads into web pages. In particular, they block domains that will load ads and stop information from being sent from the browser to any of the thousands of tracking domains that collect data on internet users. For example, ad-blocking extensions use the part to block incoming and outgoing traffic between certain domains and a user’s browser. The Web Request feature is powerful and flexible and can be used for good and bad purposes. The example Google provides for developers shows an extension script that would block the browser from sending traffic to “”: Under the currently active specification - Manifest V2 - browser extensions can use an API feature called Web Request to observe traffic between the browser and a website and modify or block requests to specific domains. The changes in Manifest V3 are part of a planned overhaul to the specification for Chrome’s browser extension manifest file, which defines the permissions, capabilities, and system resources that any extension can use. For Google, though, sticking with MV3 will significantly impact the overall role of ad blocking on the modern web. Moreover, though Firefox has a far smaller share of the desktop marketplace than Chrome, it could be a chance for Mozilla’s product to define itself. Privacy advocates have roundly criticized Google’s strategy - the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been a vocal opponent - but the search company hasn’t been swayed. But, in a recent blog post, Mozilla made clear that Firefox will maintain support for Web Request, keeping the door open for the most sophisticated forms of ad blocking. Google has long had security concerns about Web Request and has worked to cut it out of the most recent extension standard, called Manifest V3, or MV3 for short. The rupture is centered on Web Request, commonly used in ad blockers and crucial for any system that looks to block off a domain wholesale. Mozilla will let extensions use the most privacy-preserving blocking techniques on network traffic. There’s a growing split over how much room browsers should leave for ad blocking - and Chrome and Firefox have ended up on opposite sides of the fight.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |