• The Manifest V2 (MV2) API offers developers substantial capabilities,
• allowing privacy solutions like uBlock Origin and Decentraleyes to thrive.
• Google wants to limit this functionality in MV3 by reducing developer rights.

Google has said that the API for its latest extension platform for Chromium-based web browsers, Manifest V3 (MV3), has been delayed again. An update from the company is expected in March 2023.

This comes a month before the initial January 2023 deadline, established in September 2022. Late in September, Google delayed the change for commercial Chrome users until January 2024.

The Manifest V2 (MV2) API offers developers substantial capabilities, allowing privacy solutions like uBlock Origin and Decentraleyes to thrive. Google wants to limit this functionality in MV3 by reducing developer rights, which it says will improve user privacy and performance.
Some app developers are finding that Google’s promise to allow content-blocking extensions after the switch may not be true.
Core uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill had produced an MV3-compatible version of the extension, but there wasn’t “much sense” to distribute it.

The Register added that the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Ghostery’s CEO had also complained about functioning and privacy.

The move to MV3 may have happened while the API was experimental and problematic.

The Register reported that The Chromium bug report system has a litany of issues, while the new Service Workers function, replacing background scripts that stop and start as needed, is mainly broken and has been since at least November 2020.

Users looking for a secure internet experience still have options.

Microsoft Edge and other Chromium-based browsers, like Google Chrome, are affected. Brave and Vivaldi feature built-in ad and tracking blockers that won’t be affected by MV3.

Mozilla Firefox, one of the few non-Chromium browsers, proposes to incorporate MV3 while maintaining certain MV2 features. Mozilla plans to preserve WebRequest, an API for blocking web content and trackers, TechRadar Pro revealed in late September.

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