Live data from Hacker News

PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

old.reddit.com

31–40 of 334 posts

Re: PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

#31
post #2

Are people really that adamant about blocking ads on the web? I don't understand why people think it's a good idea to remove the primary source of revenue for content creators. At the most it amounts to a very mild annoyance and ads also help small businesses to grow. Edit: I'd appreciate it if someone could respond to the points I made rather than simply complain about why they don't like ads.

By themselves, ads aren't the real problem --- personalized ads are the problem. The idea that they have to profile and track your every move all over the internet in order to try and sell you stuff you don't really want or need. Example: If I go to a pet supply web site, an ad for dog food is perfectly understandable --- maybe even welcomed. But just because I was profiled visiting and maybe even buying, I shouldn't…

What about ads that are personalized just based on actions you've taken on the site, not from tracking you around the internet?

Re: PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By themselves, ads aren't the real problem --- personalized ads are the problem. The idea that they have to profile and track your every move all over the internet in order to try and sell you stuff you don't really want or need. Example: If I go to a pet supply web site, an ad for dog food is perfectly understandable --- maybe even welcomed. But just because I was profiled visiting and maybe even buying, I shouldn't…

I don't care if they have my data. My data is useless to me. Have it. I don't even think it's worth that much in the first place. I care that they make the web a crappy, unusable, annoying place. They make the browsing experience less secure. They slow down the webpages and eat bandwidth. They look ugly. It' my goddamn pc, i very well can choose what to run on it.

I don't care if they have my data.

You should. They're inventing new ways to use this data against you all the time.

For example, there has been some effort to profile you based on the price you pay for goods on the internet. They assign you a "sucker score". Once you're classified as a sucker, the price you get offered is higher than what a "non-sucker" might receive.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/05/how-onl...

Re: PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

#33
post #26
post #2

Are people really that adamant about blocking ads on the web? I don't understand why people think it's a good idea to remove the primary source of revenue for content creators. At the most it amounts to a very mild annoyance and ads also help small businesses to grow. Edit: I'd appreciate it if someone could respond to the points I made rather than simply complain about why they don't like ads.

I personally don't care about "content creators". I create a lot of content for free because it's useful for me in other ways and interesting on its own. Modern ads are surveillance tech and I want to see that die at any cost. Ads would then either have to adapt to stop being surveillance-based or the most interesting "content creators" would adapt to monetize in other ways. I really don't see a future in which inter…

> If people want things, they will appear

Yeah, which explains why journalism has pretty much collapsed in the past few decades.

Re: PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

#34
post #18

How about posting what we’re losing for those out of the loop. That Reddit link is pretty useless.

There's an extension api called onBeforeRequest() that lets Chrome extensions see urls that are about to be requested by the browser. It allows you to examine the url and do whatever code heuristics you want to decide whether you want to block it.

Google is removing that dynamic blocking ability and providing you with a way to supply a static list of blocked urls instead. No ability to use code to implement a dynamic list.

It's somewhat similar to taking a virus scanner and only allowing it to identify a virus by the filename being in a static, pre-generated list.

Also, Google says they are doing this for privacy reasons. Which is funny, because OnBeforeRequest() isn't going away, just the ability to block a request inside of it. You can still see every request, inject javascript with content scripts, exfiltrate data, and so on. You just can't preemptively stop a url/resource from being loaded using code...only a static list of urls. You can guess the type of extensions that depend on that functionality.

Re: PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

#35
post #2

Are people really that adamant about blocking ads on the web? I don't understand why people think it's a good idea to remove the primary source of revenue for content creators. At the most it amounts to a very mild annoyance and ads also help small businesses to grow. Edit: I'd appreciate it if someone could respond to the points I made rather than simply complain about why they don't like ads.

By themselves, ads aren't the real problem --- personalized ads are the problem. The idea that they have to profile and track your every move all over the internet in order to try and sell you stuff you don't really want or need. Example: If I go to a pet supply web site, an ad for dog food is perfectly understandable --- maybe even welcomed. But just because I was profiled visiting and maybe even buying, I shouldn't…

>By themselves, ads aren't the real problem

no need to be exclusive, both can be a problem.

Re: PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

#36
post #30
post #18

How about posting what we’re losing for those out of the loop. That Reddit link is pretty useless.

From what I gather, this "Manifestv3" will change the permission system of browser extensions. Extensions won't be able to inject themselves into any website anymore, hence adblockers, which do this, won't function anymore. This may not be completely accurate, but I think is the gist of it. Maybe someone can correct me. The Chrome devs claim that this is to enhance user security, but I have my doubts about that.

> The Chrome devs claim that this is to enhance user security, but I have my doubts about that.

Well, then it means they don't need to monitor their extension store for extensions doing bad things, I suppose it's part of the story.

Re: PSA: uBlock/AdBlocks on Chrome to lose function thanks to Manifestv3

#37
post #25

People still use Chrome? I get that experimental web APIs are cool and all, but why not switch over to Brave or Firefox?

Are you being serious? https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share

Chrome has been anti-user, anti-usability for some years now.I don't even want to recall the disgusting changes they did that made it unusable for me,among: website-wide audio mute, disabled click-to-mute audio.

Frankly do you consider market share a legitimate argument?It's not,and the fact that some 'tech-literate' people still use chrome baffles me.Same goes for Firefox, but my problems with them are not so much about their browser/tech but other which are not pertinent.

Post reply on HN