this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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For a tech community there are a lot of uninformed and fear mongering posts in here. From the article:
Basically it can be summed up as “nothing in the new thing actually says it will make blocking ads impossible or even harder, but who knows right? So just trust that it will based on nothing other than fear mongering”
Sites have been detecting ad blockers and refusing to show you content unless you disable them for years. Sites already have paywalls as drm to restrict what you can see. This really isn’t bringing the ability do any of these DRM things since those already exist.
Having said all that - is there much of a reason for this new thing to exist? Debatable at this stage. The only benefit I can see to users is it could eliminate captchas and other “are you human?” checks, as well as maybe reduce cheaters in browser based games (which tbh I don’t even know if that’s a thing).
I think the issue is that Google has both A) a track record of backdooring restrictions on adblocking, and B) an overwhelming motivation to do so seeing as how they generate their revenue from online advertising. They've forfeited the benefit of the doubt, especially when they've already disclosed that the whole point of the change is to enhance the profitability of online advertising:
So given that once implemented, this hop and this skip would just require a teensy jump in order to further restrict adblocking, it is reasonable to assume that's within their desired goals.
Google has a track record of attack articles written against them, all talking up their intentions to tank adblocking, including this attack article. And yet, my adblocker still works and my ads are still blocked. Strange that we just assume this is what they intend to do, when there's no evidence they've pulled it off, we treat it as if they have.
Are you really certain that Google is trying to eliminate adblocking is just an alarmist assumption?
Threatens, as in, hasn't happened and may not. Not all threats are true.
idk how well stuff works on Chrome Mobile. I use a different Chrome-based mobile browser that does allow extensions, and Ublock Origin works great on it. Turns out there's more than one way to skin a cat. Who knew?
I'm well read on Manifest v3. I'm also aware of a Ublock Origin version that is designed to work under it. I have it installed and ready to go, for if and when the old one stops working. But that has only been threatened, too, and not even by Google.
I'm not certain it is just an assumption, but I am also not certain it is a prophecy. Until I get more certain, I'm not going to bust my hump worrying about it. And I'm certainly not going to bellow to the hillsides that we're all doomed.
They can do this without this new API though. Many sites block users if they use ad blockers, have for years, and that's without this API.
Chrome isn't the only browser on mobiles. If Chrome doesn't let you block ads and you want to block ads, use a browser that does. Based on your logic, google would have eliminated ad blockers from Android overall already, yet they haven't.
The fact is that this new API doesn't block ad-blockers. Sites can already choose to block access if you have an ad blocker. There's no change.