Instead, we want to help developers, including content blockers, write extensions in a way that protects users’ privacy.' 'We are not preventing the development of ad blockers or stopping users from blocking ads.

'This has been a controversial change since the Web Request API is used by many popular extensions, including ad blockers,' Google wrote in a blog post shared with WIRED on Wednesday. But ad blocker developers argue the new arrangement will hinder their ability to quickly and correctly identify ads, without necessarily providing the benefits touted by Google. Its new iteration, the company says, will better protects users' data and help ad blockers work more more efficiently. Ad blockers rely on that API to comb your browsing data and look for ads. And the pending transition has set up a showdown between Google, makers of ad blocking software, and even other browsers.Īt the heart of the debate is a new application programing interface, known as the Declarative Net Request API, that Google will offer in place of an existing mechanism called the Web Request API. But one proposed change related to this effort threatens to hobble ad blocking extensions. Over the past 18 months, Google has pushed to improve Chrome extension security-a welcome goal given the sketchy morass of extensions that have been out there for years.

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