Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
If you are a Chrome user, you will obviously know that Google does not want you to use ad-blocking. Chrome now disables uBlock as unsupported, or rather “no longer supported”. If you are a person who prefers not to have adverts vomit all over your screen, read on.
I’m on metered internet, as my only other option is the FTTH provider, that is the only one in the area and they know it, so the service sucks like an Electrolux. I waited 31 days for them to do an install; when I finally lost it and cancelled the service request. So I understand how precious bandwidth can be for some of you. (When I had unlimited internet, I did not care, but I did sympathize). I do not want to waste bandwidth on adverts. I also do not want to share my screen with adverts, so a logical avenue for me is a pi-hole. However, a pi-hole needs updating, etc, offsetting the bandwidth I would save from not loading adverts. I suppose if I were to update once every three months… Let’s not go there.
Obviously, I say ‘obviously, as Google only has selling your data in mind, so Google would switch to manifest 3, for “security” purposes. If you realise that Google’s business model is your business, then the black-and-white starts to grey… Ad-blockers like the fantastic uBlock Origin (the one from Raymond Gorhill, not the fake one that harvests your data, on the Chrome web store), update their “blacklists” constantly, and this is what Chrome is attacking with Manifest 3. You see, if they take control of the way the extensions update - thus up to date blacklisting cannot happen – then they push adverts to your browser that you cannot stop. Now I am aware of uBO lite, a Manifest 3 complaint extension, but it is gimped. Link: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/wiki/Frequently-asked-questions-(FAQ)
“uBO Lite (uBOL) is a pared-down version of uBO with a best effort at converting filter lists used by uBO into a Manifest v3-compliant approach, with a focus on reliability and efficiency as has been the case with uBO since first published in June 2014.
However the focus on reliability and efficiency in a Manifest v3 environment meant having to sacrifice many features beyond those not possible within a Manifest v3 framework.“
And it cannot be used in conjunction with other blockers as per the developer himself: https://x.com/gorhill/status/1033706103782170625
You can also read Privacy guide’s take on uBO Lite: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/browser-extensions/#ublock-origin
So, if you are a Chrome user, what do you do?
uBlock Origin has become part of my life; I add things like Pinterest and Amazon and Google iframes, to it immediately, before my browser even hits the internet, thus it scares me, because this could happen to other browsers as well.
Well, you’d say, my next avenue of attack should be the browser, and you are right! One could opt for Brave browser and minimise the adverts. However, normies don’t know or like Brave. This is always our problem – the normies. You will get retorts such as, “oh I don’t care if they mine my data”, “Just use Chrome”, and “I don’t know how to use X or Y”. You know, the type that goes on three-month diets and then end up bigger than they were a month later. So it’s not that easy. They do not want to leave their comfort zones and there are no pills for stupidity or ignorance. You might be a Chrome fanboy too, so how do we work around it? I’m not mentioning Opera here, as their ad-blocking is selective, opting to let adverts through that they approve of, again, telling you what you can and cannot consume, and I, for one, am tired of this $#1t where everyone wants to control and censor you. Hell, I hardly ever even use Google’s search engine any more as they remove too many results.
Another way may be an ad-blocking VPN. These things do cost money and now you are paying, just to *not be harassed. I don’t think this is reasonable. Though they work, up to a certain point, I’d prefer a local solution to the gangster problem and prefer *not being extorted. (If they were dirt cheap, it would be great, but they are not.) It reminds me of a joke, when people walked, robbers would wait on the road, when people got horses and carriages, robbers became highwaymen, when people got cars, robbers opened service centres… and it feels like that is what is happening here.
I looked into ad-blocking DNS, which connects DNS over HTTPS to a secure provider. My previous ISP offered this service, it sort-of worked, but you still needed things like uBlock Origin tossed into the mix; however, my current one does not offer that service and from what I understand, this is not the norm. I tried some of the ‘open’ ones offered on the internet, but I found the reliability to be lacking. I don’t know if this is a network thing, or some fault of DoH, or a bandwidth thing, where the secure DNS server just could not handle all the traffic it was getting, but my experience with these was very poor. I tried some on every continent, and the results were below average on connection alone. This means that you cannot have this for a business, as a sketchy connection is a deal breaker and there are always solutions within firewalls for businesses or a pi-hole in a pinch.
[My friend and I were looking into turning this (a family friendly, ad-blocking, DNS provider) into a business, as it is a real problem. Our only issue was that we would need capacity and bandwidth, meaning we would need about a thousand customers at a dollar/pound/euro each per month, just to survive, maybe more, and usually you would need about three month’s worth of capital to float you. Then we would need hardware and salaries, which would mean you needed ten times that amount of customers and why would customers pay for something they get for free?]
My current solution is going back to my old haunts, where I add my own blacklists to my hosts file. While this is a good solution, my computer has to reference those thousands of lines in my hosts file, creating quite a bit of overhead. This results in a delay when browsing, and on older machines it becomes really noticeable. That in conjunction with uBlock Origin as well as Tampermonkey scripts to put my browser into reader mode, for certain websites, etc. You can see how it becomes a lot of work, and why I do not like reloading.
The solution, I think, as it stands now, is to use a combination of things, say, Steven Black’s adlist, or any other, but one only, not all of them, in your hosts file, then, a reskin of Brave to make it mimic Chrome exactly, to fool normies and maybe a Pi-hole with updates and update checking turned off…(We can add multiple blacklists on there)
As Linux users we are used to choice, I do not use Chrome at all, I do have Brave and Vivaldi and Opera though. My main browser is currently Floorp after the Librewolf key fiasco and I’m happy to report uBlock Origin still works well there. I can load adblock lists from different sections of the world and in conjunction with my large hosts file, then experience a reasonable ad-free internet.
I like other browsers, like say, Basilisk or Pale moon or whatever; the reason I do not use them is because they do not have uBlock Origin and Sponsorblock and the like… and this would also be a deal breaker for me when it comes to Chrome. If the breaking adblock madness washes over to Vivaldi, that would need to go too, I’m afraid, as I’m not willing to compromise on adverts. (I have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to adverts.)
Opening a browser on someone else’s computer these days is like visiting a dirty toilet for me, so I understand the frustrations of Chrome users and the uproar (or if you ever used someone else’s old XP PC, where you could not even see the desktop through all the icons, or internet explorer with so many automatically added toolbars, you only had half a screen to work with, hehehehe).
If you don’t like what Chrome is doing, uninstall it, simple as that. Then ask your IT guy to make FireFox or Brave look like Chrome – if you miss it so much. I have never understood the “loyalty” to Chrome, but I suspect it has to do with it being so many orders of magnitude better than internet explorer when it launched.