> But there are those of us who understand why the Chrome team made the decision it did, and are sympathetic. And we're happy that the Chrome team and Apple are of the same mind about this.
Hey, you probably didn't mean it this way, but your comment kinda sounds like you're saying everyone who opposes Google's decision is a simpleton who doesn't understand the security implications of browser extensions. That's not true, and more importantly, not especially charitable.
You can say the exact same thing about any code we run on our devices. We accept that risk or we wouldn't run any software at all. Google isn't worried about our privacy. They take our privacy. They are worried about their profits because that's all any corporation cares about.
Many have no idea these risks even exist, or mostly wrong notions about them.
Pretty sure my parents and grand parents don't even want to know their (probably randomly picked) ad blocker could pick up their credit card number every time they type it in their browser.
How could we hold it against them? Computers to them merely are (sometimes cumbersome and annoying) tools.
Besides, in the end, it's all about minimization of threats. The existence of one threat is better than the existence of two. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the "good enough."
I'm going to trust uBlock Origin because it is free open source software and I can see everything they are doing with my data. Apple on the other hand forbids reverse engineering safari (trying to understand what it does and how it works).
Once you're a part of the apple eco-system apple could theoretically (and to be clear we're talking about purely theoretical privacy risks in all cases) access your browsing history and also tie that directly to your name, address, credit card/bank account, GPS coordinates, etc.
Putting your privacy in the hands of a company that has so much of your data already is naturally more risky than compartmentalizing. If hackers somehow compromise my browser extension they get access to my browsing history on one device until I notice and correct the problem. If a hacker somehow compromises Apple they could get access to much much more. For all their care and resources Apple is not immune from attacks either. Safari has had a ton of vulnerabilities exposed just this year so far.
Downloading a sketchy browser extension takes deliberate action on the part of the user. Just loading CNN.com can (and has) caused computers to become infected automatically because of ads. Limiting the ability to block ads is not protecting anyone.
...this is a fantastic argument for disallowing installation of custom browsers. I do hope y'all like IE and/or Safari.
It's similar to when the internet blew up about Google's project dragonfly, which was cancelled, while Apple quietly did the same thing by sharing iCloud user data with the Chinese government.
Apple blocks not only the content, but the ability to even monitor as well. So there is a little extra with the Apple way.
You'd hope google would follow suit, but given their business model it's understandable if they don't. (Not that I'm a supporter of Google's business model, just that I understand why the ability to monitor is still there.)
Specifically, Google proposes to continue allowing extensions to observe all requests, but extensions can’t block requests based on these observations.
The new API is called "declarativeNetRequest" and allows extensions to block requests: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/declarativeNetReques...
"There are the following kinds of rules:
* Rules that block a network request.
* Rules that prevent a request from getting blocked by negating any matching blocked rules.
* Rules that redirect a network request.
* Rules that remove headers from a network request."
> Google proposes to continue allowing extensions to observe all requests
Their expressed intention is to disallow such behavior in the future:
"The declarativeNetRequest API is an alternative to the webRequest API. At its core, this API allows extensions to tell Chrome what to do with a given request, rather than have Chrome forward the request to the extension. Thus, instead of the above flow where Chrome receives the request, asks the extension, and then eventually gets the result, the flow is that the extension tells Chrome how to handle a request and Chrome can handle it synchronously. This allows us to ensure efficiency since a) we have control over the algorithm determining the result and b) we can prevent or disable inefficient rules. This is also better for user privacy, as the details of the network request are never exposed to the extension."
(Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nPu6Wy4LWR66EFLeYInl3Nzz...)
> In Manifest V3, this API will be discouraged (and likely limited) in its blocking form. The non-blocking implementation of the webRequest API, which allows extensions to observe network requests, but not modify, redirect, or block them (and thus doesn't prevent Chrome from continuing to process the request) will not be discouraged.
I rest my case.
But there are those of us who understand why the Chrome team made the decision it did, and are sympathetic. And we're happy that the Chrome team and Apple are of the same mind about this.