this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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Privacy

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I‘m really anxious for firefox as google is the main financier afaik.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It is a worry. I think we might end up needing to pay for Firefox ourselves.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (10 children)

I will happily donate.
If, of course, money won't go to the CEO.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

it is lol, have you seen how much the ceo is paying herself?

its kind of a reddit situaton, where money wouldnt be that much of an issue if it werent all for the ceo.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not sure firefox will be on our side after the recent ad tracking debacle. If they implement one more anti consumer feature I‘m jumping ship.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (14 children)

Jump ship to what? Not like there's s lot of choices out there. You could always try LibreWolf.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They plan a release for 2028. It's going to be a while before it can be used for everyday browsing.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

That's true, but it's worth waiting. Until then Librewolf is probably the best choice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

That would be my first address, assuming the librewolf folks will never accept anti community code, hopefully.

If everything fails i‘m fine to join a small project and help with it. I have some skills and can contribute financially.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Plenty of Firefox forks out there.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (4 children)

look up ladybird. we may soon have a 3rd browser!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s hard to take a project seriously for championing our privacy if the only communication options are Discord & Microsoft Github

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Feel free to offer hosting something else for them. Be the change you want to see.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There are free (both kinds) options to these problems if they can’t afford it—and that still isn’t an excuse to require all coms go thru US-based proprietary services with big privacy implications.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Although I‘m not a fan of the options either, the implications regarding the project are minimal and I wasnt talking about the money. Hosting communications platforms isnt easy. It requires the team to change their habits besides their already challenging tasks of producing usable software.

Being the change you want to see does not implicate money, it implicates you contacting them, talking about their reasons, convincing them the comfort loss of non big tech platforms is worth it and only them it becomes a question of money.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Contact how? When you cut yourself off from the FOSS com options to build FOSS projects, you are unwelcoming to those actually using the tools whose philosophy match your project—just not your communications for some reason. There isn’t a listed email address or a gateway or bridged room.

The few teeny, tiny projects I have, I welcome emails & XMPP chat for anyone that wishes to collaborate which doesn’t require anyone to create an account on any particular service.

Choosing proprietary tools and services for your free software project ultimately sends a message to downstream developers and users of your project that freedom of all users—developers included—is not a priority.

—Matt Lee, https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/opinion-github-vs-gitlab

For those still not getting it, it is as wild as saying you need to have a Facebook account to communicate to a project as these services are all on the same level of propriety & lacking in privacy.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You‘re barging into open doors mate. You should still accept that the best way of changing things is taking up responsibility. You can definitely open an issue regarding their communication choices and propose changes.

And again, they probably have an ongoing community on the existing platforms which means bridges will be necessary which means proprietary platforms will listen in on all convos on bridged platforms.

You cant make people do the thing you think is best. You can only help them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can’t just “open an issue” if you don’t have a Microsoft GitHub account or live in a region under US sanctions or censorship where you can’t get access to it. These are pillars of sand to build your community on that not only lack freedom for users, but access too & control for your own content + moderation.

Gateways don’t need to be the only answer too—even just mentioning an unofficial space lets those that don’t want their data harvest can hang out together under the same topic but away from those service (even if most of the chat log is public, unencrypted anyhow).

Developers of all folks should know better & know the issues caused by proprietary services. They should not plan for where users are now but where they want things no be in the future but there’s a myopic view of this is where the users are. They don’t even give folks a place to air grievances like you are suggesting.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Oh man… I don’t disagree completely but thats still not how this works.

Github alternatives are very early in their existence. Things like gitlab, forgejo and such are very limiting if you want to promote a new project.

Although you are technically right, your premise is much too strict. If you cant be asked to help people do the right thing, I dont think you‘re in the right place discussing foss things.

I can solely repeat what I said earlier: be the change you want to see. Help people do the right thing and stop bitching about all the things that unpaid volunteers are doing wrong in your opinion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I am hopeful they will get some more corporate backing. We can donate all day but that is a drop in the bucket compared to a few million from some large companies

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

That's supoosed to be the preview release date on Linux and MacOS...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

If they can stay funded I believe them

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

using a novel engine based on web standards.

Now, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

2026 isn't soon.

[–] Mikina 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

IIRC, only like 2% of Mozilla spending goes towards FF (I may be misinterpreting something, but I remember 2% being thrown around), so funding FF without rest of Mozilla bullshit shouldn't be that hard. Of course, since Mozilla did spend so little on FF, it's a question how much they actually care about FF and what would happen if they lost access to their golden goose. They shouldn't have problem funding FF, but they probably have other bullshit they don't want to let go and that has more priority for them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Mikina 14 points 2 months ago

You are right, it was unfairly harsh wording, I apologize for that. Most of those products are super cool and important, I've kind of extrapolated it from what I've read in other posts about them spending too much on stuff like events and other, non-developemnt, related stuff that I actually never checked, while also not realizing that they also have a ton of other projects, which mixed with the dissapointment with the recent development about the Meta partnership led to me choosing that wording unfairly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

For now. They could default to yahoo and make money. Maybe not as much, but they could sustain browser development.

Firefox is still far superior to chromium.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I agree. That could work. We‘ll see.