UBlock Origin developers didn't respond to a request for comment.
Google blocks more than 1,800 malicious extension uploads each month, it said in 2019. The security risks of extensions are real.
"One of our goals is to make it as easy as possible for developers to achieve their core use cases while needing less access to user data," Google said in a statement. Google has incorporated feedback from ad blocker developers AdGuard and EasyList, the company said, and Meshkov credited the Chrome extensions team for being "eager to improve it." "We still have real misgivings that these changes have more to do with Google protecting its bottom line than it does with improving security for Chrome users."
Ghostery is working to update its extension for Manifest V3 but would rather spend its time on "real privacy innovations," President Jeremy Tillman said in a statement Wednesday. Now Chrome, Safari and Edge dictate what can or cannot be blocked and how it should be done." Previously, ad blocker developers were exploring ideas like using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to improve their products. "The main victim of Manifest V3 is innovation," Meshkov said in a statement Wednesday. The shift brought on by Manifest V3 will spread to all browsers, to the detriment of ad blocking software, predicted Andrey Meshkov, co-founder and chief technology officer of AdGuard, an ad-blocking extension. AdGuard, Ghostery unhappy with Manifest V3 "We believe extensions must be trustworthy by default, which is why we've spent this year making extensions safer for everyone," Google said in a blog post.
They said the rules limits will stop their extensions from running their full lists of actions to screen ads or block tracking. Reducing the number of rules allowed angered creators of extensions like the uBlock Origin ad blocker and the Ghostery tracking blocker.