Chrome ad blocker update: what MV3 actually changed for users

Chrome ad blocker update: what MV3 actually changed for users The story that the Chrome ad blocker update would kill your ad blocker was wrong. A peer-reviewed study published earlier this year in Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies by researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt tested MV3 versions of four major blockers against their MV2 predecessors, using default settings to replicate what a typical user actually runs. The result: no statistically significant reduction in blocking effectiveness. The MV3 versions actually blocked marginally more tracking content, averaging 1.8 additional tracking scripts per site (Extenshi). That "default settings" qualifier matters. It is what the research establishes, and it is the limit of what it establishes. The argument here is narrower than "ad blocking is dead on Chrome." It isn't. The argument is this: the Chrome Manifest V3 ad blocker transition has permanently removed the ability of browser extensions to insp