Re:AdGuard publishes the first ad blocker built on Manifest V3
by JoshTriplett on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @08:48AM
(#32649706)
If Google did that, there'd be widespread cries of "gatekeeping!". Mozilla was blasted for doing exactly the same thing.
Re:AdGuard publishes the first ad blocker built on Manifest V3
by ocdtrekkie on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @09:14AM
(#32649981)
Here's the problem with that apologism: They already are gatekeeping. They made that call as soon as they removed sideloading extensions. The problem is Google is just a shoddy gatekeeper.
Re:AdGuard publishes the first ad blocker built on Manifest V3
by michaelt on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @08:57AM
(#32649819)
They manually review and approve Android apps one-by-one.
The results have not garnered much acclaim.
I suppose you could argue they simply haven't budgeted enough $$$$ to get skilled reviewers taking enough time on each review.
Re:AdGuard publishes the first ad blocker built on Manifest V3
by ocdtrekkie on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @09:13AM
(#32649971)
People reviewing the security of browser extensions should have the title of "engineer" at minimum.
Bear in mind browser extensions completely defeat all the benefits of HTTPS. If we aren't putting them through significant scrutiny there really is no reason for anyone at Google to claim to work on security at all. Extensions need to be treated as incredibly privileged code and vetted accordingly.
But of course, that would require Google actually take some responsibility and do some legwork and neither of those things are in their core competency.
If Google actually had any goals of improving security, they'd literally just delete the Chrome Web Store and start over and manually reviewing and approving extensions one by one.