Google Chrome update creates permissions nightmare for ad blockers, rendering uBlock Origin inaccessible on newer Chromebooks
Your favourite ad blocker may not be long for this world. Users looking to add the extremely popular uBlock Origin to their speedy Chrome browser have been met with the following message: «This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions.»
The associated support page alludes to concerns about users' privacy and security, but the bigger picture centres on Chrome’s Manifest V3 extension update. The Manifest V3 update is a pretty seismic shift, as it will likely also affect any web browser built using Google's free and open-source Chromium project, such as Microsoft Edge and Opera.
Chrome Manifest versions can be thought of as a list of rules for browser extensions to follow, detailing what APIs developers can use and what permissions extensions can have access to. Anyway, put a pin in that Manifest definition because the 'permissions' part becomes incredibly important later on.
Manifest V2 was the dominant specification for years, though Chrome is set to phase it out entirely by June 2025. Some users on newer Chromebook models already lack the option to download browser extensions still using Manifest V2, according to PCWorld.
As uBlock Origin still uses this older Manifest version, that's bad news for the ad blocker's existing 40 million users on Chrome. uBlock Origin Lite is a Manifest V3 compliant alternative, though lone developer Raymond Hill describes it as «a pared-down version» that's had to «sacrifice many features» in order to comply with the new framework.
Ghostery, a company that develops a variety of ad blocking and privacy tools for a number of browsers, offered some insight as to why V3 represents such a shift in a recent interview with PCWorld. Ghostery's director of engineering, Krzysztof Modras, puts it plainly, «The most important limitation of Manifest V3 is the removal of extension access to the browser’s network layer.»
This creates a permissions nightmare for developers. For instance,
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