from Alsephina@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 15 Aug 2024 09:55
https://lemmy.ml/post/19172415
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.
#privacy
threaded - newest
In their eyes they just made 30 million more customers.
Fucking parasites.
They made Firefox a good number of new customers.
I‘m really anxious for firefox as google is the main financier afaik.
It is a worry. I think we might end up needing to pay for Firefox ourselves.
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.
Jump ship to what? Not like there’s s lot of choices out there. You could always try LibreWolf.
LadyBird is very promising.
I agree.
They plan a release for 2028. It’s going to be a while before it can be used for everyday browsing.
That’s true, but it’s worth waiting. Until then Librewolf is probably the best choice.
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.
Librewolf is just a reskinned Firefox.
Purged of unwanted and intrusive features, UBO pre installed, and is pre configured for increased privacy.
Tried librewolf recently and although worked well (linux mint) had all sorts of scaling issues and wouldn’t keep my settings. Just using as a backup to FF until I can figure it out. FF only just started failing to play YT unhindered.
Could very well be a mint issue. It’s a bit wonky at times with regular system windows.
Things are getting strange if you activate too much privacy settings. For example, all websites appear in light mode (because most people use light and thus is less value to track you) and for some reason, webUI with integrated terminals were not able to draw the ASCII text, it was just rainbows 😂 (proxmox and hombridge)
Oh really, are they building their own engine?
Plenty of Firefox forks out there.
Netscape Navigator and Opera raise their hand
Wait, Navigator still exists?
Nah, it’s Firefox now
Well, Opera is also based on Chromium.
Do they still pass everything through a spy proxy to “speed up” browsing?
I will happily donate.
If, of course, money won’t go to the CEO.
A CEO is a needed possition, I know in the past the Brendan Eich was controversial in his political views, but Laura Chambers seems ok so far
Ha! Good one…
oh wait. You’re serious…
How is a ceo needed? They do no work. Their entire job is to rake in cash from workers.
All a ceo needs is a guillotine.
Ok, granted that the CEO concept is not the only way to lead a company.
But you do need a leader, someone who can make decisions for the company, someone to make everyday decisions that are not fun, but needed to make the company work.
We can absolutely argue about their compensation, but thst is another argument alltogether.
Here’s a short animated Ted Talk about co-ops without CEO’s. Decisions can be decided by the workers, I think there’s some disconnect on what you’re imagining a CEO is. If you’re needing to make decisions everyday for the company to work… well you’re looking at something like Twitter which isn’t a stable company in a lot of ways. The video goes on to explain how co-ops operate and perform successfully through the centuries and a good starting point if you haven’t been introduced to the business model before.
Managers or “presidents” do exist, but the big difference is their role is to implement the decisions made by the group and does away with the usual power structure that influences and hurts the workers (usually through wage theft like the record bonuses CEO’s collect while making decisions for the share holders, not the consumers or employees).
Right.
And a football team doesn’t need a quarterback.
🤦🏼♂️
Yes, many of them are assholes, doesn’t change the need for the leadership.
ceos are not equivalent to quarterbacks.
the ceo is equivalent of the team owner. he makes the money and not much else.
CEO =/= business owner
i know, but its closer in equivalence
At least Brendan Eich was a developer, good on him for being Christian.
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.
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.
A list of Mozilla’s “other bullshit”:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mozilla_products
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.
look up ladybird. we may soon have a 3rd browser!
Looks promising. Lets see where it goes. github.com/LadybirdBrowser/ladybird
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
It’s hard to take a project seriously for championing our privacy if the only communication options are Discord & Microsoft Github
Feel free to offer hosting something else for them. Be the change you want to see.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In 2026
That’s supoosed to be the preview release date on Linux and MacOS
If they can stay funded I believe them
Now, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time…
2026 isn’t soon.
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.
I agree. That could work. We‘ll see.
All 10 of us
Firefox isn’t exactly “the good guys” either
You expect good guys?
No
I agree but isn’t the choice between “the terrible guys” and “the okayish guys”?
If you don’t know the good guys, then yes that’s your choice
So who are the good guys, mind you telling? As far as I’m aware, currently it’s a choice between Chromium based browsers and Firefox and its forks. So really just 2 options in the grand scheme of things.
Tell me you’re poor without telling me you’re poor
I prefer flawed but trying guys to guys with zero morals that farm every ounce of data they can.
Firefox has telemetry too
And it can be turned off.
100% of it? Nope.
What are you stating cannot be turned off?
This sounds baseless without any evidence.
You cannot make Firefox have zero connections to the Internet.
Of course not. It’s an internet browser. What point are you trying to make?
It’s sending your data, how dense are you
It’s open source. You’re assuming this is telemetry without having an idea. Could be diagnostics, could be pocket, could be sync check.
Without evidence, sounds like a load of FUD.
It’s ironic you call me dense.
Diagnostics is just a nicer term for telemetry. And sorry for calling you dense, you’re clearly here to market Firefox, you’re just a bad guy.
No. It’s when bugs and crashes happen, and trying to identify how. Such as stack traces for example, or memory usage when an app keels over.
I’m not here to market FF, I’m here trying to counter balance the Firefox haters that spend so much hate to trash the only real legitimate chance we have of Google not dictating web standards. I don’t know why so many people shill for billion dollar companies. Do they love Google that much, or are they simply useful idiots?
So you’re dense and evil? Do you say least have a huge cock / tight box?
You’re insufferable. Surprised you still ain’t on reddit. That’s where the corporate bootlickers are. I guess Lemmy.world is the next best place.
You might want to look up what Mozilla is, son
I know enough, little one. Maybe you do.
Your whole concept of what a corporation is seems to be in shambles. Try to be less forward, you’re embarrassing yourself. You’re 100% tude, 0% knowledge.
Between two evils, Firefox is the comparative good guy. There’s not a chance in hell I’m using anything based on Chromium, I’ve been using FF for close to two decades now and I’ve experienced very few dealbreaker issues.
I’ve heard reasonably good reports about ublock origin lite (uBOL), the manifest V3 implementation. I haven’t made the jump yet, though.
Come to firefox or even better librewolf dont let google ass fuck you.
It has some deal breaking limitations:
It may still block a relatively large part of the ads, but uBlock is not just about blocking ads. Large parts of it’s filterlists are about blocking data mining, shitty cookie prompts and similar things.
It is never going to work the same. They are talking about dropping it entirely.
This is the bargaining stage of the five stages of grief.
Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome.
Maybe. I’m on Firefox, but a lot of my family members are on Chrome and I’m not looking forward to the calls ;)
Netscape Navigator is clearly superior to Internet Explorer. except that Andreessen guy became a Facebook bro. Shame nothing came of that. Oh well, guess I’ll use Firefox.
Cat and mouse game, it’s better to DNS block ads.
DNS blocker will be as useful or maybe even less than ubo lite. E.g. it just cannot block youtube ads like ubo does.
Also Google and removed both bypass your DNS blocker. They use their own DNS server and DoH protocol to resolve their ad servers. DoH is also hard to block because it uses port 443 with https.
The best bet right now is to use either a DNS or even better: packet filter level blocker such as zenarmor; together with ublock origin on firefox. Nothing else will not really block tracking in 2024.
Or, here me out, don’t use Chome
It’s not perfect but PiHole will still catch a lot of the ads if you have the know-how to set one up. Tis a relatively cheap and easy solution that has the benefit of being able to block ads network-wide, providing your router lets you set a custom DNS.
https://pi-hole.net
Even if my Internet provider forced me to use their router I’d plug my own router in behind that one fuck that.
Some isp’s have been detecting the second router and giving people shit for it.
But I’m with you on that, I don’t trust the isp’s backdoored router-modem. Hard pass.
Giving people shit how? This is the first time I hear something like this. In my case, my ISP does not allow bridging a router, so I NAT mine instead, and it works just fine.
Yeah, they can still tell that you’re Nat behind another router.
But they don’t like it because it gives them less access to your network and more possibility for something to be wrong
I’ve never had an isp complain about me using my own router in the US, is this just common in other countries or have I just been lucky?
It’s a rarity afaik, I’ve only heard of one or two cases, but a concerning report to me personally.
Though I’m Canadian so it’ll be a few years before it filters here (assuming it catches on)
How would they do that? Maybe by looking at ports? You could just lie and say you only have one device.
Probably just MAC address lookups, but also possibly something weird like “ttl “ stats
The MAC address would match the out bound interface of the router
Yes.
And they would ask “why is there a router on your network”
At least try to understand what is being said to you, ok son?
I’m very sorry that your life feels so out of control that you need to lash out so quickly with condescension.
Did you want to talk? Or perhaps explain where you think I misunderstand?
Try to understand the comment you replied to, lazy ass.
And if you “device type” that…. You’ll see a router likely.
The moment they see their ONT is registering only 1 device (the router) it’s clear everything is being routed via that.
I have never not had a router natted behind my modem. They can see the amount of packets and data I use over the ISP, but that’s about it. On top of that my LANs and VLANs are all VPNd through NordVPN before anything hits the WAN and all DNS traffic goes though my Adguard Home and Quad9 as well, so there’s that.
How do they know that it isn’t just a single device network?
Highly unlikely when you have hundreds of gigs passing through daily.
But how would they prove that? I have high doubt. Also what benefit would it give them? It seems like a lot of work and uncertainty for little reward.
I can’t answer that. I guess you would need to be in their place to understand that backwards way of thinking.
They might be able to see if the data indicates the network has been though NAT (network address translation) twice, but that would look just like someone who has plugged their own wifi box into the modem
Why do you trust NordVPN more than your ISP ? Is your ISP known to be especially bad ?
I trust any company that’s not in my country more than any local company. Or I should say, I distrust local companies more.
Don’t NAT. Just bump in the wire firewall plus local DNS server.
There’s always NAT. You get one IP address, your router/wifi shares the network using NAT
But ISPs aren’t looking for NAT, since everyone with wifi is using it
cablehaunt.com
😂
My provider, small one from my town, or the attendant just decided to give me the password. After months, I found out how to extract the configurations and used my old router instead.
Second this, Pihole is great and protects every device on your network too - mobile phones, smart TVs, tablets, Nintendo Switches, etc.
It’s wild how much telemetry is baked into stuff that you can just cut the nuts off of.
Even cheaper to just stop using chrome
Don’t use Chrome. It has plenty of issues including backdoors by Google.
Its worth noting however this can cause weird problems since its system wide and even network wide if you set it up that way.
As an example, my wifes Spotify podcasts didn’t work for months only for us to discover pihole was blocking the cdn Spotify uses.
I’m not sure what Mullvad is based on - i think it’s on Tor, which is Firefox based?
I do use mostly LibreWolf, but if FF also went to shit, I wonder if Tor, and thus Mullvad, would keep on going or not. Because I suppose LibreWolf would have troubles with keeping up, if Mozilla would enshitify FF, since they would probably have to fork and continue development on their own.
mullvad browser is based on FF
Browser engines are ridiculously complex, nearly on the level of operating systems. All of the Firefox forks are really just different UIs built around Gecko/Quantum - those other projects aren’t really maintaining their own engines, they’re dependent on Mozilla’s work to remain stable, secure and relevant.
Yeah, I know and that’s what I’m afraid of. I guess I’ll just have to come to terms with most websites not working in some obscure web browser that’s not feature-complete. Would actually help with my addiction, so it won’t be so bad, I guess.
Firefox works for nearly everything. The only stuff that doesn’t work for me is Xitter embeds, and this is a gift that keeps on giving.
If it keeps going on like this, it won’t be long before I’ll just say fuck it and switch to elinks…
Hmm, on that note - is there any CLI web browser that can do javascript and css? Because iirc, elinks doesn’t, though I havent used it in years.
browsh does, but uses FF as backend renderer
Lynx ftw! Not sure if that’s been maintained since the 90s though.
You can’t improve on perfection!
Lynx is still actively maintained. I use it from time to time when I don’t feel like leaving the command line to look something up or whatever. It works really well still. So long as all you care about is text.
If you like to use reader mode you’ll probably like Lynx.
github.com/fathyb/carbonyl
This is more usable than browsh, in my experience, but has the very unfortunate downside of being based on Chromium (🤢)
Holy mother of BASED
The sooner you abandon javascript and css, the sooner you can be free
Elinks for can do basic CSS & JS. I wish there were better support for like 256 or 16 color modes for CSS to better support TUIs. The reading UX is generally pretty good, but stuff like syntax highlighting really helps. …That is if website makers did their job correctly & treated JavaScript as an enhancement. The bigger issue is even in the case of limited JS support like Netsurf, most developers aren’t going to be writing ES3 or ES5-compatible code which is about all most of these systems can support which means the JS will be broken anyhow without keeping their engines up to date.
Firefox supremacy validated once again
We need more options
Yes, but until we have them, Firefox is the best option.
*librewolf
Also that.
Not only intrusive ads, intrusive trackers too
Using the internet without an adblocker is genuinely dangerous. Everyone really should be using uBlock Origin. Using a web browser that prevents uBlock Origin puts you in danger
For sure
Are chromium derivatives like Brave affected?
Yes, however Brave’s built-in ad blocker is not
Sadly yes. Almost all, if not all derivates are affected since they inherit the codebase from it. Unless they implement manual Manifest v2 patches + have their own extension store they manage
So that basically means that Firefox and Safari are the only two unaffected, since it seems like everything else is Chromium these days. Yikes.
Vivaldi said they will keep V2 support. Not forever, but as long as they are able.
So for a little bit until people stop caring.
Firefox is the correct play here.
I’m not saying what’s “the correct play” or not, I’m refuting the claim all Chromium-based browsers are immediately affected, because I know of at least one that will keep V2 support.
But I will keep using Vivaldi. It will take me the same time to migrate to Firefox regardless if I do it today or a year from now when Vivaldi drops V2 support. I have nothing to gain by migrating sooner, but potentially much to gain by waiting.
Not for everyone. For me it's unusable since I rely on stuff ff never implemented (using bluetooth from a web page to configure some of my home appliances, grab api keys for them, stuff like that). Also I'm not too thrilled that it laks any kind of official PWA or Chromecast support. Not to mention they still have some ugly bugs when rendering some gradients.
And besides this, I used to love everything Mozilla did, but at one point I grew to hate how they left ff to stagnate which made me switch.
I still reconsider it from time to time, but I always get disappointed by how little things have changed and how much even more things seem to be missing/buggy since the last time.
all chromium browsers are affected, so if a chromium browser wants to support manifest v2, they have to manually maintain it separately from the main chromium build. whether individual companies will do so ofc is tbd. braves built in browser probably not affe ted
Brave is a series scam company.
Moved to Firefox some months ago, it’s fine. Small adjustment but browsers generally offer high interchangeability
Does this affect edge as well? Pushing out ublock via policy to both edge and chrome has saved me a lot of headaches at work, this is gonna be a pain in the dick.
Yup, it affects all chromium browsers AFAIK
Microsoft still hasn’t made a stance. However, Edge isn’t private and is an advertising platform.
Maybe figure out if you can do a very customized version of Firefox. I would take inspiration from Librewolf but keep in mind things will break if you start applying privacy patches.
In future news: Work efficiency drops dramatically because all workers have to fight with ads while researching solutions 😮
I’m not sure if it’s related, but I’ve been getting popups that prevent navigation away from pages on the Google Android browsers
And thus, this day will be remembered as the great browser migration.
Screw you Google. Enjoy your antitrust.
<img alt="1000002761" src="https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/636f7931-c5e9-4a29-bb8a-f637a7414163.webp">
<img alt="" src="https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/61892867-97ff-41d3-b9d4-77f0e2e33853.png">
Friends don’t let friends run Chrome.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Switched to Firefox in 2023 and it’s wild how much shit just works now.
Totally agree. Many people who keep using Chrome have a VERY outdated view of what Firefox can do. That’s a shame, but it’s unfortunately an aspect of human nature that negative impressions are SUPER hard to change.
Its a good thing I’ve been using Firefox for almost 2 decades then.
You can get a pass till July 2025 by creating/setting a registry key that they made for businesses.
Paste this in a .reg file and double click it.
At this rate people should just cut the cord with google. Modifying reg files is almost as annoying as moving bookmarks over. Firefox + uBlock + pihole (if you’re feeling ambitious/want to block other crap that’s non-browser related) and you’re chillin.
Moving bookmarks takes about 10 seconds to do.
Yea that’s why say, just as annoying. Which I guess for the PC illiterate registry edits are more dangerous?
I personally moved off google about 2 years ago (started using start page as well) and haven’t looked back.
I have no idea what you are talking about but whatever.
you could instead just download firefox, which isnt perfect either but still a huge improvement over any chromium browser
Remember like 2 weeks ago when Google’s very own ad networks were distributing malware?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Stop using chrome and move to Firefox, also stop using Windows and more to Linux.
Firefox is now owned by ads company. By default there are enabled telemetrics and moreover companies starts to ignore compability of their web services with browser which market share is lower than 2% even goverments stops considering that browser. Mozzila instead of optimization of their browser spend time introduceing features like AI. I was trying to like that browser but mozzila effectively does not allow me. Now btw. I use just vivaldi. I know this is not fully open source.
Which “ads company”? No offense, just curious.
siliconrepublic.com/…/mozilla-anonym-acquisition-….
Says Mozilla owns the ad company. Not sure where it says the ad company owns mozilla
So you use Chromium…
Were Firefox to go bad, we would use a non-bad fork off Firefox. It’s open source.
They are not independent. It all soft fork. Everything depends on firefox. If firefox die all the forks will die with too.
Or the Mullvad browser, Mullvad’s fork of FF with zero ads with help from the Tor project.
Librewolf is also good if you prefer flatpaks
Google is Mozilla’s dad so I’m not sure how long we will be able to use FF with v2.
Even a short-lived chance to cling to Fx is worth something. Hopefully they will team up with others to port the missing parts to v3.
the big companies, technological or not, always do the same thing… they launch a good product, very cheap (or free). When they already have a big market, they start cutting back. In the case of food, they raise prices, cut products, slightly change the taste… In the case of technology, they raise prices, cut the product, eliminate features…
That a company like Google, dedicated to data, has its own browser and pays to include it as standard in cell phones, it is clear that it is not going to stand still when an addon for its browser blocks part of its business…In this case, very few will switch browsers. That means changing habits. Already did with Google Photos… . Tiene miles de millones de fotos y vídeos de menores, de fiestas, íntimas… Ofrece espacio gratuíto y después, le pagas por ello, porque tienes tu vida ahí… Or with Google Maps. It’s a great service, but it knows where you go, what for, your schedules… a brutal security problem…or with email… it reads everything. Because otherwise it will add you to the calendar when you take a flight without having opened the confirmation email…
I’ve never stopped using Firefox. Google pays it too, but it’s the only one that’s independent. And then there’s Waterfox, Librewolf, PaleMoon… Run away from Google… there are alternatives.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
No they don’t. And can’t. It’s not their product.
Headlines these days. Are they all complete lies?
I’ll assume you’re being intentionally obtuse because no one could actually be that dumb.
Lots of firefox mentions, no mention of Vivaldi tho…?
Vivaldi is still chromium-based, which is also getting Manifest V2 support cut. And its default ad blocker sucks, if we’re being honest.
Oh fuck, looks like I gotta switch again…
Vivaldi, Opera,
Safari, Edge. It’s all Chromium.Really? I thought Safari wasnt chromium based
Ah, you’re right, apologies, it’s WebKit! Edited my previous comment.
Bust this trust.
The title should be “Google pulls plug out of Chromium”
Too bad that even when people start switching, people writing drafts for the W3 spec are mostly Google employees. I’m sure that’ll be their next battleground.
This reminds me that Microsoft and Google have been intensely “collaborating” with code for Linux kernel as well… Too good to be true good-hearted actions from those corporations…
Don’t forget stupid DRM bullshit.
www.w3.org/TR/…/WD-encrypted-media-2-20240718/
Editors: Joey Parrish (Google Inc.) Greg Freedman (Netflix Inc.) Former editors: Mark Watson (Netflix Inc.) (Until September 2019) David Dorwin (Google Inc.) (Until September 2017) Jerry Smith (Microsoft Corporation) (Until September 2017) Adrian Bateman (Microsoft Corporation) (Until May 2014)This was after Google bought WideVine in 2010.
Why does it need to run remotely hosted code though?
Because the ads constantly change across the websites. Adblocking is naturally a cat-and-mouse dynamic. However, the “remotely hosted code” Adblockers use is not exactly “code” (as in a JavaScript code, for example), it’s more a Regex code containing patterns for the different websites and different behaviors (for example, the pattern for the pesky HTML element containing the ad, or the pattern for some ad-serving domain). Google is extrapolating their meaning of “remotely hosted code” purposely, so they can “justify” their measures.
Fair. Pulling rules makes sense. Code wouldn’t. (I wouldn’t consider regex as code.)
Thanks for the details.
This is the perfect time to go aggressive on telling your friends to switch to Firefox
Honestly, I blame developers who, some years ago, decided it was a good idea to centralize the browsers into the same engine. Yeah, it was hellish to maintain code for all browsers at the time (IE5, IE6, Firefox, Safari, etc), but it was paradise compared to our current scenario: at least we really had options: WebKit, Trident, Gecko, as well as lots of smaller, almost unknown engines. Now, all modern browsers are different wrappings of Chromium or Firefox, while most modern sites are developed without the active worry to keep Firefox compatible (one can notice how modern HTML5 features varies across both of them). It has no easy solution. Don’t update, maybe? (Until sites start to complain about the outdated version)