• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 21, 2024

Google Chrome has officially begun disabling popular ad blockers such as uBlock Origin as it continues to roll out Manifest V3. 

The change might be good news for advertisers in the long run, but not for Raymond Hill, creator of uBlock Origin. Last week, he retweeted a screenshot from one user, showing how Chrome disabled the uBlock ad blocker.

“The deprecation of [uBlock] in the Chrome Web Store has started,” Hill wrote to a reposted comment from Chrisopher Nakazawa.

“After more than 15 years, it's time to switch browsers,” Nakazawa wrote, asking for recommendations for a Chrome-based browser to run on macOS. “I just want Chrome but without nefarious behavior by Google.”

Nakazawa notes that Google has turned off three extensions: MDN Search, Neat URL and uBlock Origin.

JP Schmetz, CEO of digital privacy company Ghostery, said that Google has always claimed that it removes extension access to the network layer, user security and privacy will be enhanced, but it really undermines these goals by stripping essential features from ad blockers and other privacy tools, such as anti-tracking extensions.

"While much of the world is learning of this change in real time, we’ve spent substantial resources over the past couple of years preparing for this change," Schmetz said.

Preparing for the change meant that Ghostery 10 is compatible with Manifest V3, but Schmetz said the industry cannot overlook the toll this change has taken on the online privacy landscape overall.

"Had we, and other ad blocker developers been able to continue to focus on furthering privacy innovations in recent years, Google’s original goal to enhance user security and privacy would surely have been better achieved," he said. 

Chrome Web Store began warning that the uBlock ad blocker and other extensions may soon be blocked as part of the company's phaseout of the Manifest V2 extension specification.

In June 2024, Google said it would make the transition with Manifest V3, with a completion date set for early next year.

The warning links to a Google support bulletin that states the browser extension may be disabled to protect users' privacy and security.

"To better protect your privacy and security, Chrome and the Chrome Web Store require extensions to be up-to-date with new requirements," Google's support bulletin reads.

Google spokesperson Scott Westover told The Verge last week said in an emailed statement that the majority of “’actively maintained’ extensions in the Chrome Web Store” use Manifest V3. "The top content filtering extensions all have Manifest V3 versions available — with options for users of AdBlock, Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin and AdGuard," he told the media site.