Google Is Cracking Down on Ad Blockers, But Here's How You Can Fight Back
Google has gotten a bad reputation as of late for being a bit overzealous when it comes to fighting ad blockers. Most recently, it’s been spotted automatically turning off popular ad blocking extension uBlock Origin for some Google Chrome users. To a degree, that makes sense—Google makes its money off ads. But with malicious ads and data trackers all over the internet these days, users have legitimate reasons to want to block them. The uBlock Origin controversy is just one facet of a debate that goes back years, and it’s not isolated: your favorite ad blocker will likely be affected next. Here are the best ways to keep blocking ads now that Google is cracking down on ad blockers.
Why is Chrome turning off ad blockers?
Google first made its intentions for ad blockers clear back in 2019, when it discussed how the extensions would be affected by Chrome’s update to the Manifest V3 extensions platform, set to go into full effect next year. There are a lot of technical details here, but suffice it to say that ad blocker developers weren’t happy. Google says that Manifest V3 is supposed to make Chrome extensions more secure, and that it is “not preventing the development of ad blockers or stopping users from blocking ads.” However, the update cuts off access to the Web Request API that many ad blockers, not just uBlock Origin, rely on to flat out block traffic to and from malicious pages. Web Request can be used for good or ill, but without it, there’s potential for permissions nightmares as strict as needing users to allow ad blockers on a per-site basis, which could go beyond being annoying to actually introducing more security issues.
CEO of ad blocking company Ghostery, Jean-Paul Schmetz, explained the problem with this per-site permission structure to PCWorld: "The goal was to improve privacy, but that never actually happened. Because effective extensions compliant with Manifest V3 will need to request access to every single website…users could become complacent with these requests, and make themselves more vulnerable to rogue actions.”
Ghostery director of engineering and product Krzysztof Modraf agreed, saying, "extensions will lose important tools and permissions that have previously allowed them to quickly react to new threats directly from the user device.”
So, ad blockers that don’t use Manifest V2 could get worse, while malicious extensions could take advantage of pop-up overload to get users to agree to security vulnerabilities.
Regardless, Google is going forward with the changes, and has begun the process of phasing out extensions that use Manifest V2 files from the Chrome Web Store—uBlock Origin won’t be the only one. Soon, developers including those behind alternatives like Adblock Plus or AdGuard will need to use Manifest V3 or not publish on Chrome at all.
How can I keep blocking ads during the Google crackdown?
Google’s new rules will likely affect all Chromium browsers, including Chrome and Microsoft Edge (a support page from Microsoft shows that Edge is losing access to the Web Request API). While that sounds bleak, you still have a couple of options to keep blocking ads like you always have.
Just turn your ad blocker back on
For now, there’s an easy but temporary solution to get uBlock Origin or other Manifest V2 ad blockers working again: just turn them back on.
According to Google’s Chromium blog, while the company is currently in the process of automatically disabling all Manifest V2 extensions, which is what your ad blocker probably is, it will temporarily allow users to manually turn them back on “for a short time.” This toggle will go away “over time,” but given that not everyone is even getting their extensions disabled yet—it seems to be happening in waves, and my uBlock Origin works fine at the moment—you should still see it for now.
If Chrome tells you that it’s turned off your ad blocker, follow these steps to re-enable it.
Open a Chrome window
Click on the three vertical dots menu in the top-right corner next to your profile picture
From the drop-down menu, mouse over Extensions and click Manage Extensions
Find the card for your ad blocker and toggle it back on
Unfortunately, Google hasn’t been clear about when this option will go away, but for now, it will let you keep browsing without ads, business as usual.
Use an updated version of your favorite ad blocker
When Lifehacker reached out to Google for comment on this story, we were told “over 93% of actively maintained extensions in the Chrome Web Store are running Manifest V3, and the top content filtering extensions all have Manifest V3 versions available—with options for users of AdBlock, Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin, and AdGuard.”
This is true, although because of the differences between Manifest V3 and V2, the V3 versions for these ad blockers might not be suitable replacements for you. It’s really a case-by-case basis.
XDA writer Adam Conway actually got a shoutout from Google’s head of Chrome Parisa Tabiz for testing the differences between uBlock Origin and its Manifest V3 version, uBlock Origin Lite, where he said he hasn’t “noticed any real differences at all.” At the same time, uBlock Origin Lite’s developer isn’t so sure.
“Only you can tell,” developer Raymond Hill wrote in an FAQ. “It’s very possible that the sites you visit do not require any of the filtering capabilities specific to uBO, in which case you won’t see a difference.” However, he followed that “In general, uBOL will be less effective at dealing with websites using anti-content blocker [tech].”
It’s very much dependent on your habits, but if you only ever visit a handful of the same sites, it’s possible that simply using a Manifest V3 compliant version of your favorite ad blocker will work for you. If Google has disabled your current ad blocker, try downloading an updated version and seeing if it meets your needs.
Here are the Manifest V3 versions of a few popular ad blockers
Use an alternate browser
By far, the best way to avoid Google’s rules is to not use its products. There are browsers out there other than Chrome, and they’re not going after ad blockers nearly as much.
The biggest thing to keep an eye out for here is that not every non-Chrome browser is free of Google’s interference. That’s because many Chrome alternatives, like Microsoft’s Edge, run on the same underlying technology, called Chromium. In an email to Lifehacker, Microsoft declined to comment directly on the issue, but linked me to a support page that indicates ad blocker developers will face the same issues on Edge as on Chrome, as they'll still be losing access to the Web Request API that powers their extensions in their current form.
For ensuring your ad blockers continue to run as usual, your best bet is probably Mozilla’s Firefox. Firefox doesn’t run on Chromium, but rather its own engine called Gecko. And while Firefox also supports a version of Manifest V3 as well, it’s making one key change: it’s allowing developers to keep using the Web Request API.
“Content and ad blockers like uBlock Origin will continue to work in Firefox because we believe that they are a natural expression of users’ right to control their experience and protect their privacy," Firefox Senior Engineering Manager in charge of add-ons, Frantz Joseph, said.
This means ad blockers can keep functioning as usual, with no compromises or needs to download a new version. Manifest V2 add-ons even continue to work on the browser, and Joseph promised support into the future, saying “we have no plans to remove support, or reduce functionality, for ad blockers.”
According to uBlock Origin’s developer, the extension already worked better in Firefox even before Chrome’s swap to Manifest V3, due to how the browser handles it at launch, a position that he’s now doubled down on after he noticed Chrome starting to disable the non-Lite version of his extension for some users.
Ghostery CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz also agreed that moving to Firefox is a good move, saying that while the company does now have an Manifest V3 compliant version of its extension for Chrome, “using Ghostery on Firefox is the best way to get the most comprehensive anti-tracking and ad-blocking capabilities.”
There’s plenty of other valid reasons to swap from Chrome to Firefox, including built in protections against data trackers, even without the use of extensions. It also includes a handy import tool that makes switching easy, so it’s worth a shot if you’re getting tired of Google’s control over the browser market. Here’s a handy guide on exactly how to switch from Chrome to Firefox and the pros and cons associated with it
Other non-Chromium browsers include Safari and various Gecko-based Firefox alternatives. Unfortunately, because Safari doesn’t allow for the Web Request API, it’s not a great Chrome alternative in this instance, as its ad blockers suffer from the same issues as Chrome’s (uBlock Origin isn’t even available for Safari). However, Firefox alternatives like LibreWolf are strong bets, since they’re based on the same core tech. They also usually focus on having even stronger privacy protections than Firefox, with LibreWolf even coming with uBlock Origin pre-installed. Here’s a list of some of our favorites.
If you don’t want to use a Gecko-based browser (Firefox is not absent of controversy), there’s also the DuckDuckGo browser. DuckDuckGo does not support extensions and does utilize Blink, which is related to Chromium, on Windows, but makes an effort to use open source tech to include blockers for data tracking into the browser as much as possible. While this doesn’t automatically eliminate all ads, it does naturally filter out many of the most harmful ones, making it a good set-it-and-forget-it option. DuckDuckGo Senior Product Director Peter Dolanjski also told Lifehacker that DuckDuckGo does plan to add extension support in the future.
With that, you should be well prepared to keep using your favorite ad blockers even after Chrome disables them. I wish it were as easy as just giving you a list of viable ad blockers to install if your favorite stops working, but unfortunately, Google’s rules will affect all ad blockers soon enough. That’s why it’s important to take the necessary steps to keep a hold of them ahead of time.