Google Automatically Disables uBlock Origin Adblocker on Google Chrome
On March 4, 2025, Google Chrome automatically disabled uBlock Origin, the most popular adblocker to date[1][2], for all users as part of shift to the Manifest V3 version of Chrome.
Background
Released in 2014, uBlock Origin is a comprehensive adblocker that browser users may install as an extension to avoid advertisements while browsing the web. Given the ever present nature of advertisements on websites, uBlock Origin provides users with a faster and less obtrusive web browsing experience.
In 2018, Google announced that it would begin a shift to a new version of Google Chrome extension manifest called Manifest V3, or MV3 for short, "to create stronger security, privacy, and performance guarantees."[3] In 2020, Google released a beta version of MV3,[4] and by early 2022, Google Chrome disallowed users to release extensions on the Chrome Web Store that were only incompatible with MV3.[5]
[Incident]
[Company]'s response
Lawsuit
Consumer response
There are doubts that MV3 does much for the security, since "when a malicious extension sneaks through the security review process, it is usually interested in simply observing the conversation between your browser and whatever websites you visit"[6]. And to quote Firefox’s Add-On Operations Manager: "they can still do that with the current webRequest API that is not blocking".[6]
Users can still browse the web without ads and with reduced tracking by switching to a browser which continues to support Manifest V2 and the full version of uBlock Origin, such as Mozilla Firefox or the Chromium-based Brave.
References
- ↑ "Privacy & Security". Chrome Web Store. Retrieved 16 Aug 2025.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "6,320 extensions found in Privacy & Security". addons.mozilla.org. Retrieved 8 Aug 2025.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Trustworthy Chrome Extensions, by default". Chromium Blog. 1 Oct 2018. Retrieved 23 Mar 2025.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Manifest V3 now available on M88 Beta". Chromium Blog. 9 Dec 2020. Retrieved 23 Mar 2025.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Manifest V2 support timeline". Chrome for Developers. 9 Oct 2024. Retrieved 23 Mar 2025.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 Barnett, Daly (9 December 2021). "Chrome Users Beware: Manifest V3 is Deceitful and Threatening". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 Jul 2025. Retrieved 16 Aug 2025.