3 ms·

The scary part is gorhill is able to sell or hand over the extension - as he has done in the past - to someone with looser morals and/or goals. How much do you

by mappu 5y ago

The scary part is gorhill is able to sell or hand over the extension - as he has done in the past - to someone with looser morals and/or goals. How much do you think NSO Group would pay for this kind of access? If you ran uBlock Origin, would you like to retire early? Jbk from the VLC project has a lot of stories about turning down 6, 7 figure payments to bundle malware in VLC. Not everyone has the strong morals and unlimited stamina to withstand that. Manifest V3 is created to solve a real problem. I have had browser extensions go rogue on me before (Stylish), and i would like it to not happen again. At the same time, uBlock Origin is a hugely important extension for making the web usable for hundreds of millions of people. A compromise must be found that moves their safety out of a single person's hands.

aembleton 5y ago
It's a good point. Probably best to build it into the browser and let me add my own lists for it to use. That would be a good move for Firefox, they could have it off by default but it would help to reduce the chance of a compromised extension have too much access.
- mappu 5y ago
  This is almost exactly what Manifest V3 is - it reduces the extension to just be a list manager for a built-in blocker. The only real complaint is that Chrome did not anticipate how large these lists need to be in 2021, and the limits are too low.
  - kbelder 5y ago
    Another problem is that it's static; my understanding is the extension creator needs to make a new list, get it approved by Google, put it in the repository, and get the user to download the update, before a new ad is blocked. Probably requires a restart of the browser, also. Not sure if it removes the ability for the user to on-the-fly add any blocking, but I suspect it does.
    - youngtaff 5y ago
      New rules can be added at runtime - https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/declarativeNetRequest/#method-updateDynamicRules https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/decla...
throwawaycuriou 5y ago
wait, Stylish went rogue?
- AnonC 5y ago
  Yes. See https://robertheaton.com/2018/08/16/stylish-is-back-and-you-still-shouldnt-use-it/ https://robertheaton.com/2018/08/16/stylish-is-back-and-you-... Use Stylus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/styl-us/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/styl-us/) instead.
donkarma 5y ago
has gorhill really sold an extension to someone in the past?
- mappu 5y ago
  "sell or hand over the extension", he handed over the original uBlock to someone who immediately tried to monetize it.
- tpxl 5y ago
  He sold/handed over 'uBlock'. The new owner was malicious. Gorhill learned from his mistakes, started uBlock origin and decided he'll rather let an extension die than hand it over the next time.

by mappu 5y ago

aembleton 5y ago

It's a good point. Probably best to build it into the browser and let me add my own lists for it to use. That would be a good move for Firefox, they could have it off by default but it would help to reduce the chance of a compromised extension have too much access.

mappu 5y ago
This is almost exactly what Manifest V3 is - it reduces the extension to just be a list manager for a built-in blocker. The only real complaint is that Chrome did not anticipate how large these lists need to be in 2021, and the limits are too low.
- kbelder 5y ago
  Another problem is that it's static; my understanding is the extension creator needs to make a new list, get it approved by Google, put it in the repository, and get the user to download the update, before a new ad is blocked. Probably requires a restart of the browser, also. Not sure if it removes the ability for the user to on-the-fly add any blocking, but I suspect it does.
  - youngtaff 5y ago
    New rules can be added at runtime - https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/declarativeNetRequest/#method-updateDynamicRules https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/decla...

throwawaycuriou 5y ago

wait, Stylish went rogue?

AnonC 5y ago
Yes. See https://robertheaton.com/2018/08/16/stylish-is-back-and-you-still-shouldnt-use-it/ https://robertheaton.com/2018/08/16/stylish-is-back-and-you-... Use Stylus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/styl-us/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/styl-us/) instead.

donkarma 5y ago

has gorhill really sold an extension to someone in the past?

mappu 5y ago
"sell or hand over the extension", he handed over the original uBlock to someone who immediately tried to monetize it.
tpxl 5y ago
He sold/handed over 'uBlock'. The new owner was malicious. Gorhill learned from his mistakes, started uBlock origin and decided he'll rather let an extension die than hand it over the next time.