Google is Killing uBlock Origin. No Chromium Browser is Safe.
www.quippd.com
We’ve been anticipating it for years,1 and it’s finally happening. Google is finally killing uBlock Origin – with a note on their web store stating that the extension will soon no longer be available because it “doesn’t follow the best practices for Chrome extensions”.2 Daly Barnett. “Chrome Users Beware: Manifest V3 is Deceitful and Threatening.” EFF, December 9, 2021. ↩ Lawrence Abrams. “Google warns uBlock Origin and other extensions may be disabled soon.” Bleeping Computer, October 13, 2024. ↩

Google is weakening ad blockers as part of their MV3 extension standard and this will trickle down into all Chromium browsers. Built in ad blockers lack features compared to uBlock Origin as well.

  • frezik@midwest.social
    112·
    2 months ago

    Highly recommend setting up a PiHole. It may not be quite as comprehensive as uBlock, but it cuts the ads way down, and it’s not something that browsers can easily bypass. You do have to make sure to shut of DNS over HTTPS, or setup a separate solution for that to tunnel into PiHole.

    • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 months ago

      aaaaaaand then there’s Android.

      Android will not remove your default DNS, and will only use added DNS servers as additional rather-than instead of.

      edit: this is only if you aim individual devices at a pihole instance and not wrapping your whole network or vlan to pihole. If you’re forcing every request the phone makes, it doesn’t matter and this is moot.

      There are free apps that make localhost VPNs on your device to bypass this that force your network to use a chosen DNS server.

      This is also a built-in function of Tailscale, setting Tailscale’s DNS to Pihole or Adguard, and were you running wireguard or openvpn already, you could use them as entrypoints as well.

      Mullvad and other paid VPN services often also offer to use DNS servers that blocks ads, tracking and malware.

      • Tinks@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 months ago

        Pihole has always worked as expected on my Pixel phones. To the point that I have to drop off of our wifi to visit some sites when they don’t load correctly. Pihole is happening at the router level though, not a setting on my phone. Unless Android starts tunneling around it (I wouldn’t put this past Google), then all traffic will continue to go through Pihole since it’s going through our router. Any device connected to our network has Pihole as its DNS.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        2·
        2 months ago

        Not sure that’s right on all phones. Browsing on my Pixel 6 shows noticeably fewer ads when I’m at home compared to anywhere else.

        • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          2 months ago

          My scenario is under the assumption that you’re selectively aiming individual devices to Pihole’s DNS and not aiming your entire network at it.

          I’m holding a Pixel 6 too.

          Underrated phone, gets a lot of flak.