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Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

bugs.chromium.org

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Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#241

Post by sridca »

Hippocrates wrote: post #203
sridca wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm invested in the Google ecosystem, and have recently got myself a Pixel Slate that I carry everywhere as my primary computing/ media device (no more separate laptop and tablet). It would now be silly of me to use Firefox in place of Chrome. Moreover I have got nothing to hide, so all these privacy-fears don't concern me; in fact I often feel like they are being overblown.

People who feel that they have “nothing to hide” don’t quite understand the extent to which they’re being mined for personal data. Google offers all of this amazingly polished software for free so naive people like you will feed them your browsing history, email, location and search queries. They will then monetize that data by targeting ads to you, which generates over 80% of their revenue. If you are ok with that a…

> ask yourself if you’d be ok with [your browsing history, email, location and search queries] ever being exposed publicly.

I already did, and the answer was "Yes, I'd be okay" (although the likelihood of that happening is extremely rare).

> Ever googled something embarrassing?

Use incognito mode.

> Perhaps a medical condition or symptom?

I have only one medical condition, which I'm not embarassed to talk about publicly (I already do it).

> Sent a very personal email?

I rarely send "very personal"/ intimate information over email in lieu of just talking over phone.

> Visited a less than savory location,

Never in my life.

> or lied to an employer about your whereabouts?

I never had to do it (why would I?).

> I’d be willing to bet most people have some data that could be weaponized for blackmail.

If--note "if"--I were to engage in an activity that could potentially be used to blackmail or harm me in any way, I would of course be doing it in as private manner as possible. However it would be silly to spend the rest of my normal life cowering and being phobic to technological advances.

> Surely many people (especially the ignorant) will find Google’s products and services “worth using” but privacy concerns are anything but overblown.

You confuse being naive (in its original sense of the word) with being ignorant. But I guess that's what fear does to one.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#242

Post by stuartd »

albru123 wrote: post #171
QML wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox just doesn’t have enough advantages yet that would convince someone comfortable with Chrome to switch over. While privacy is an ever growing concern, it isn’t a strong enough feature for most people.

Firefox does not stack tabs like Chrome does and does not load all the restored session tabs at once either. Aren't these dumb design decisions enough to switch to a product where people actually think about how it's going to be used?

.. and Chrome doesn't have container tabs, which for me are a killer feature.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#244

Post by happybuy »

To defend Google a bit, it looks like the change is being put in place so that users would have more privacy – by stopping extensions accessing all active URLs.

In essence they are copying what Apple did with Safari and their content blocking APIs. In this model, content blockers provide the browser with a set of blocking rules and the browser executes them against pages during render & load. Ad blocking can occur and privacy of what the user is viewing is retained.

Sure it's more restrictive and yes will likely break existing adblockers, but it's probably a better model for the future.

There will be arguments that you "can't do what is necessary" to create effective adblockers. That's incorrect.... I've created such an adblocker [1] using the Safari methods and its efficient, effective and high performance – including loading some sites 2x faster.

[1] https://www.magiclasso.co/

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#246

Post by Mikeb85 »

darkpuma wrote: post #26

So we have a browser with nearly 70% market share, made by an advertising company that's arguably the most powerful business on the internet, interfering with ad blocking. And of course there is no regulatory body that is able or willing to step in. Great.

Why should Google, an ad company, not interfere with an ad blocker? No one has to use Chrome and Google doesn't have to allow ad blockers.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#248

Post by xythian »

jaxn wrote: post #235
cheez wrote: post #195

If uBlock stops working... I stop using Chrome. Simple as that.

Pi-hole covers you regardless of browser.

Yes, but also less so every day. Google has already figured out that they should serve Youtube ads and content from the same servers to limit the ability of DNS based ad filtering.

DNS filtering is a cat-and-mouse game that DNS filtering tools will eventually lose. Don't get me wrong, I love Pihole and have used it for a while, but I know that I'm on the losing side of this battle.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#249

Post by ngngngng »

AaronFriel wrote: post #231

Another reason why it was an enormous mistake for Microsoft to adopt Chromium as the engine. Now Microsoft has a choice for Edge: A. Fork here and pay the maintenance price and extension compat issues, with potentially unlimited downside of technical debt in reconciling the two. B. Adopt these changes and kill ad blocking in Edge, preventing them from differentiating themselves from Chrome and reinforcing Google's po…

Or pull a 180 and start running their own build of firefox that they contribute to.

Re: Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

#250

Post by tyfon »

QML wrote: post #112
sixothree wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really just don't understand the obsession with Chrome, especially in hacker communities. Sorry Google, I feel "icky & gross" when I use you.

Firefox just doesn’t have enough advantages yet that would convince someone comfortable with Chrome to switch over. While privacy is an ever growing concern, it isn’t a strong enough feature for most people.

A major problem is also that google websites run like crap in firefox. Gmail takes 20 seconds to load and don't get me started on youtube studio. Even the "feedback" button is broken in firefox so I can't even report the bugs I find.

I'm at the point of installing chromium just to be able to manage my videos, but I refuse to give in.

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