Dear Funny People on the Internet

DEAR FUNNY PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET There has been some confusion about the coming changes to Chrome, their impact, and on what to do. Here is a handy introduction. 1. What is happening Popular web browser Chrome and the open source project it stems from, Chromium (both developed by Google), will soon change the way add-ons/extensions can interact with the browser. In short, extensions will be much less capable. This includes the ability of ad- and tracker blockers to block ads and trackers. 2. Why is this happening The old way in which extensions could interact with the browser has been one of the main attack vectors on users from malicious extensions. At the same time, Google is an advertisement and tracking company, so the conflict in interest is obvious. Providing a browser that is inherently less capable in blocking trackers and advertisement is profitable for them. 3. Why you should care Besides being an annoyance, ads work Even if you think they don't. Global advertising spendings are moving towards a trillion US-dollars per year, for reference. Your browsing is important! Tracking goes much further than you probably think. Your browsing, location, usage, app- and medical-history (if you use certain medical apps) are tracked. Not only should you not accept this level of intrusion, it can, has and will be used maliciously. Examples include political misinformation campaigns and police investigations due to period cycle information. Advertisement and tracking agents can themselves be vectors for malicious code. They will also slow down your device to the additional load of data that has to be transferred, loaded and displayed. Google's ability to push changes like this relies on their quasi-monopoly in the browser space and will impact the majority of internet users. Developing browsers is expensive and complicated. This means both that we won't see any truly new browser emerge from the many of this and that changing a Chromium derivative enough to truly stave off googles influence is impossible. Thus, Chromium derivatives uphold Google's quasi-monopoly and might be unable to find a way around future changes with a similar direction. Even if they find a way around this current change. Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, Opera are all Chromium derivatives! Instead, consider switching to Firefox or a Firefox based browser like Librewolf! Depending on your interest in this topic, the switch can be as easy as installing Firefox, exporting your data from Chrome, importing it to Firefox and installing uBlock Origin. For a deeper dive, look into Manifest v3 or uBlock Origin's FAQ.

A pastel infographic featuring an anime-style cat-eared girl and a colorful robot-like character explains Google's planned Chrome and Chromium extension changes. It argues that reduced browser extension capabilities will weaken ad and tracker blockers, benefiting Google's advertising business, and recommends switching to Firefox-based browsers such as LibreWolf with uBlock Origin. The joke is the deliberately cute, overly colorful presentation of a serious privacy and browser-politics rant, shared as an ironic reaction to Chrome's Manifest V3 changes. EN: A pastel infographic featuring an anime-style cat-eared girl and a colorful robot-like character explains Google's planned Chrome and Chromium extension changes. It argues that reduced browser extension capabilities will weaken ad and tracker blockers, benefiting Google's advertising business, and recommends switching to Firefox-based browsers such as LibreWolf with uBlock Origin. The joke is the deliberately cute, overly colorful presentation of a serious privacy and browser-politics rant, shared as an ironic reaction to Chrome's Manifest V3 changes.

• @gentoomemes / 6696 2023-10-09