Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome

[DukenukemX]

Chromium is developed and maintained by Google.

Which Edge, Brave, and so many other web browsers are based on. Hence why FireFox is the best choice. Google knows if you don't use Chrome, then you will use Chrome.

People need to understand that Google's actions in this thread are literally nothing to be concerned about, as the implementation can be disabled quite easily.

I'm sure it's on by default, right? I really doubt when Chrome updates itself that it will ask users if they want Google to track them or not. Probably won't be worded as tracking, but 'taylormade web browsing experience'. Cause people actually want to see ads and want those ads to cater to them.

The bigger problem is Manifest V3, as Manifest V3 will forever change the web as we know it and it won't be for the better - Unless people like being forced to watch advertising, and unless people are comfortable with web pages opening on their browser only if Manifest V3 deems their whole PC from browser right through to OS and running background tasks as 'secure'.

I agree, but I see Google's built in tracking along with Manifest V3 and their proposed web DRM as a massive push to fight ad blocking. Which is why this needs to die before it has a chance to bloom.

This cannot be justified in the same way people justify their continued eroding of privacy, and the only way around it is to ensure any browser based on Chromium declines in popularity - In short, you use Firefox, or the web changes forever in a very negative way.

Sounds familiar, like what happened when IE dominated the market and the web changed forever, in a very negative way. It's funny because it was FireFox that changed this. Chrome came out afterwards and didn't even allow for adblocking, but did eventually allow it because nobody would use it otherwise. Same thing with Edge. If FireFox ever gains market share again, it will be revovling around the use of adblockers... again.

Every time someone posts negatively about Firefox I roll my eyes.

Honestly, I don't see a difference when using one web browser over another, unless it's some obscure browser that has one good value but nothing else. People do have their preferences but web browsers are minor. As long as I can use my favorite add-ons, I couldn't care. Manifest V3 will fuck with my add-ons, so I do care. It sucks on Android because some apps do require Chrome. The Ring app needs Chrome, which is stupid. I tend to avoid Google stuff as much as I can on my Android phones. Eventually I will replace Ring for Eufy, and being able not to have Chrome installed is a bonus.

As like operating systems, I don't really think of the fact I use Firefox, and everything just works.

As a Linux user I can tell you that OS's are not for everyone. It's one of the reasons why I only use Linux, because someone has to in order to improve it. Haven't touch Windows for a year and a half.

Firefox and ublock = A great browsing experience. If a web page insists on a browser based on Chromium so it can easily track your movements on the web, there's User Agent Switcher. The number of times I've had to use a user agent switcher I can count on one hand.

I've never had that problem with FireFox, but good to know about Agent Switcher which I'm gonna install. Never know if I need to fake it to make it. Ublock isn't even available on Safari, which you need to use ADGuard. ADGuard on Safari is basically like adblock with Manifest V3, which means some ads will get through. I'm sure that'll change once Apple is forced to allow side loading, which means you'll start to see proper web browsers with proper adblocking on iOS. I use FireFox+Ublock on everything, especially on Android because of course Google's Chrome browser won't let me install extensions.

 

[Mazzspeed]

I agree, but I see Google's built in tracking along with Manifest V3 and their proposed web DRM as a massive push to fight ad blocking. Which is why this needs to die before it has a chance to bloom.

This is more than just forced advertising, this could be used to determine if you have OBS running in the background while watching a movie - Overall, the implications are about as wide reaching as you can get. This is about absolute corporate control of the web as we know it.

People need to stop using any browser based around Chromium. Once such measures are implemented, they're almost impossible to 100% roll back.

 

[sleepeeg3]

No they took a political position and I stopped using them for it.

Er... what?

I still use Netscape Navigator, so I don't have to worry about any ads.

 

[MaZa]

No they took a political position and I stopped using them for it.

Why does it matter what their political leanings and opinions are in their personal lives? They could be the right and left arms of Kim Jong Un for all I care, as long as they provide a browser that suits my needs and values my privacy. All things that Chrome is not.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Why does it matter what their political leanings and opinions are in their personal lives? They could be the right and left arms of Kim Jong Un for all I care, as long as they provide a browser that suits my needs and values my privacy. All things that Chrome is not.

I'm not too sure 'ol Kim, as well as his right and left arm's, care a hoot for personal privacy...

 

[MaZa]

I'm not too sure 'ol Kim, as well as his right and left arm's, care a hoot for personal privacy...

I know, I know.

 

[Tsumi]

No they took a political position and I stopped using them for it.

Are you sure "they" as an entire Mozilla group did or one dev in a random blog post did? From what I have read in this thread, it is not the official position of the Mozilla group.

Chick-Fil-A's CEO is openly Christian with very conservative values. Sure doesn't stop the company from putting out a product the masses love.

Anyways, I was expecting an in depth conversation on what browsers to use and why. I was mildly disappointed. General consensus seems to be Chromium-based browsers are okay for now as long as tracking options are disabled with the caveat that might change with Manifest V3, and Firefox, Opera and their derivatives are generally okay.

Already running Ublock on Chrome so jumping to Firefox with Ublock isn't too much of a change. Made the move to using Bitwarden as my password manager instead of Chrome (paying for premium too) so that's not an issue either. Switching to an independent password manager has made the barrier to changing browsers nonexistent for me.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Manifest V3

Manifest V3 is more than just tracking, Manifest V3 is all about you surfing the web how Google want you to surf the web.

 

[Vermillion]

Now I'm not coming into this thread saying Google is our god and savior and they should be trusted. They have done plenty of shitty things (let's not talk about FLOC) but the Topics API is not one of them. I can tell some of you don't actually understand how it works and what is actually happening behind the scenes. The article is awful. It's a shitty headline and a shitty article that explains nothing about how Topics works. Ars Technica should be ashamed of that clickbait half-assed article.

I know some people want zero tracking. I would love that but I'm also a realist. I know that will never happen. The problem is that's an ideal that is literally impossible on the Internet now because the Internet is driven by ads. Even in my household my wife's iPhone is specifically not filtered through my Pi-hole because she does click relevant ads from time to time and the filtering got me yelled at. I know plenty of people who click through ads. I've had quite a few friends who also run Pi-hole (based on my recommendation) come to me to find out how to exclude a device because a family member (typically a spouse) got pissed because they couldn't click an ad. We here at [H] are not Jane or Joe Average. A vast majority of users out there do click through ads. People to need acknowledge that.

In a perfect world a website would curate ads based on content on a per page basis but not every website out there can curate ads like Kyle used to do. We knew that allowing ads on [H] was worth our time because Kyle kept them that way. We would see only relevant ads and when one not relevant slipped through Kyle made sure he took care of it. Kyle though was only looking at computer parts and computer technology for ads which makes curating simpler. I would imagine it still sucked up a lot of time for him.

However, what about a news website? They have articles about politics, health, beauty, gadgets, gifts for a holiday coming up, the weather, technology, sports and more. Those sites are ad driven so relevant ads means the world to them. Nobody wants to be looking at an article about the latest iOS security update on their favorite news website and see an ad that is completely unrelated to the article.

Topics really does give you great control and here's the important part. The data never leaves your computer. Topics information is only stored locally. Google gets nothing to track you. A website gets nothing to track you. There's nothing to fingerprint you. I know some here don't like Steve Gibson but he has a wonderful breakdown of how exactly Topics works. For those who actually want to understand how it works here's a link right to where Gibson goes into the explanation.
View: https://youtu.be/4AuaxbLSfKg?t=3873

3rd party cookies need to die. Direct user tracking through different fingerprinting methods need to die. However, both of those can be true and there can still be a way to be shown relevant ads. Topics certainly looks like that answer. Time will tell. Now this doesn't mean I'm retiring my Pi-hole or removing Ublock Origin from my browsers but it does mean that I am more comfortable with family and friends who don't want to listen to my advice and just go about the Internet how they see fit because there will be less of their data being siphoned into someones database.

 

[DukenukemX]

Anyways, I was expecting an in depth conversation on what browsers to use and why. I was mildly disappointed. General consensus seems to be Chromium-based browsers are okay for now as long as tracking options are disabled with the caveat that might change with Manifest V3, and Firefox, Opera and their derivatives are generally okay.

Use FireFox and get it over with. It's all down hill for Chrome based browsers.

Already running Ublock on Chrome so jumping to Firefox with Ublock isn't too much of a change. Made the move to using Bitwarden as my password manager instead of Chrome (paying for premium too) so that's not an issue either. Switching to an independent password manager has made the barrier to changing browsers nonexistent for me.

Google has delayed Manifest V3 so many times, but they will eventually roll it out and remove support for Manifest V2. Which means no Ublock for Chrome, or at least no properly working Ublock for Chrome.

I know some people want zero tracking. I would love that but I'm also a realist. I know that will never happen.

I'm doing it right now. My Linux desktop, my LineageOS phone, my OpenWRT router, and of course I use FireFox. I even use CloudFlare DNS because I don't want my ISP tracking me. Could I do more? Sure, but I think I'm pretty hard to track. Not impossible but extremely hard.

The problem is that's an ideal that is literally impossible on the Internet now because the Internet is driven by ads.

The only websites that are driven by ads are not giving you a service you paid for, like online banking and streaming services like Hulu and Dinsey+. Those that are like Netflix and YouTube are intentionally giving you a bad service to provoke you to pay up to remove ads. Ads are easy money, because the user visiting the website doesn't have a choice other than to load in the ads.

Even in my household my wife's iPhone is specifically not filtered through my Pi-hole because she does click relevant ads from time to time and the filtering got me yelled at.

If she's clicking ads then take the iPhone away. She will bankrupt you.

I know plenty of people who click through ads. I've had quite a few friends who also run Pi-hole (based on my recommendation) come to me to find out how to exclude a device because a family member (typically a spouse) got pissed because they couldn't click an ad. We here at [H] are not Jane or Joe Average. A vast majority of users out there do click through ads. People to need acknowledge that.

Nobody enjoys clicking on ads. Nobody clicks on ads. Those that do have money burning a hole in their pocket, might click on ads.

We knew that allowing ads on [H] was worth our time because Kyle kept them that way.

I distinctly remember getting banned here for suggesting ad blocking.

However, what about a news website? They have articles about politics, health, beauty, gadgets, gifts for a holiday coming up, the weather, technology, sports and more. Those sites are ad driven so relevant ads means the world to them. Nobody wants to be looking at an article about the latest iOS security update on their favorite news website and see an ad that is completely unrelated to the article.

Ask people to pay for the news. Otherwise it'll just get regurgitated on Reddit for free. A lot of the stuff the websites supply and depend on ads for financial support, are done for free on Reddit and done better. When Reddit had their shutdown, it made me realize that Google is useless without Reddit. If I wanna know what's the best whether widget for Android, it'll be based off reddit. Website articles that suggest stuff are useless at best and sponsored at worst.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Google has delayed Manifest V3 so many times, but they will eventually roll it out and remove support for Manifest V2. Which means no Ublock for Chrome, or at least no properly working Ublock for Chrome.

Ublock currently doesn't work as effectively under Chrome as it does under Firefox, under Firefox uBlock is as watertight as it gets, while Chrome lets certain ads 'slip through'. However, Manifest V3 means complete DRM for the internet as Google sees fit, which can be used by any other corporate entity to ensure you browse their site exactly as intended - So no more Facebook in a walled off container, for example.

Any browser that doesn't conform to Manifest V3, simply won't have access to a majority of the internet. As far as monopolization goes, Manifest V3 makes Microsoft in the IE days look like amateurs.

The only way to stop such totalitarian implementations is to stop using any browser based on Chromium, and stop now. By using Chromium based browsers, people are giving Google the leverage they need to effectively control the internet.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Ask people to pay for the news. Otherwise it'll just get regurgitated on Reddit for free. A lot of the stuff the websites supply and depend on ads for financial support, are done for free on Reddit and done better. When Reddit had their shutdown, it made me realize that Google is useless without Reddit. If I wanna know what's the best whether widget for Android, it'll be based off reddit. Website articles that suggest stuff are useless at best and sponsored at worst.

The problem with Reddit is the undoubtable fact that they're killing off smaller forums and their communities as people switch to a platform (Reddit) that have proven that they are going to maintain complete control at all costs - Whether you're a moderator or not. I see it now on the forums I frequent, posts are dwindling.

 

[DukenukemX]

The problem with Reddit, is the undoubtable fact that they're killing off smaller forums and their communities, as people switch to a platform (Reddit) that have proven that they are going to maintain complete control at all costs - Whether you're a moderator or not. I see it now on the forums I frequent, posts are dwindling.

Reddit is good for crap, but I wouldn't want to use it to discuss how to tune my car. Try having a tech discussion on Reddit, as it quickly devolves into dick jokes. For things like news and memes, it's fine. Wallstreetbets is just one giant meme about stocks. I could see it being a threat to a forum like Genmay.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Reddit is good for crap, but I wouldn't want to use it to discuss how to tune my car. Try having a tech discussion on Reddit, as it quickly devolves into dick jokes. For things like news and memes, it's fine. Wallstreetbets is just one giant meme about stocks. I could see it being a threat to a forum like Genmay.

It's ridiculous. One person posts a sarcastic comment and the whole thread devolves into sarcastic comments.

Must be a millennial thing?

 

[DPI]

It's ridiculous. One person posts a sarcastic comment and the whole thread devolves into sarcastic comments.

Must be a millennial thing?

Hyperaggression as an attempt at masking and coping with modern loneliness, anxiety, internal brokenness and disillusionment.

Not to get all Carl Jung about it, but us primitive tribal beings fast-forwarded into an age of hyperconnectivity - and technology indistinguishable from magic - has produced a lot of unhappy people I reckon. Will probably take hundreds of years and many generations to reach some kind of better equilibrium.

/old man throwing shoe at TV

 

[Mazzspeed]

Hyperaggression as an attempt at masking and coping with modern loneliness.

It's a distinct possibility. The whole karma thing doesn't help.

 

[sharknice]

It's ridiculous. One person posts a sarcastic comment and the whole thread devolves into sarcastic comments.

Must be a millennial thing?

Yeah, 15 years ago it was. The average redditer stayed the same though, now it is much younger than a millennial.

Reddit is just a reflection of democracy. Because of it's voting system the things people want to see get moved to the top irregardless of their relevance or usefulness.
It also just has a ton of bots.

Reddit already gutted forums, but it's old, Discord is doing it now.

 

[1_rick]

Reddit already gutted forums,

Just last week I saw an article somewhere mentioning Usenet and saying it's still around. Go figure.

 

[uOpt]

Reddit might be good for consuming a finished discussion.

But participating repeatedly in one discussion kinda sucks since there is no good way of tracking where new replies appear.

 

[Darunion]

Reddit might be good for consuming a finished discussion.

But participating repeatedly in one discussion kinda sucks since there is no good way of tracking where new replies appear.

I as a millennial am too old to figure out reddit lol Just seems like a cluttered mess. Maybe with google tracking me closer it can find more appropriate places for me to read up on things lol.

 

[Armenius]

Google has delayed Manifest V3 so many times, but they will eventually roll it out and remove support for Manifest V2. Which means no Ublock for Chrome, or at least no properly working Ublock for Chrome.

Manifest V3 is already here. It was added to the stable channel back in 2021. Mv3 addons have already been replacing the Mv2 versions on the Chrome addon website. Even uBlock Origin has a Mv3 version that the developer has had users testing since at least March. Manifest V2 entered deprecated status in June as planned and will be removed completely from Chrome in January next year.

 

[Tsumi]

Yeah, 15 years ago it was. The average redditer stayed the same though, now it is much younger than a millennial.

Reddit is just a reflection of democracy. Because of it's voting system the things people want to see get moved to the top irregardless of their relevance or usefulness.
It also just has a ton of bots.

Reddit already gutted forums, but it's old, Discord is doing it now.

Yep... Wargaming (I play World of Warships) are shutting down their forums in favor of making everyone join their Discord server. To that I say.... makes me glad I never gave them a cent and cements my decision not to do so in the future.

 

[illli]

I've been using Firefox before it was version 1.0 (and before it was even called firefox).

 

[gtrguy]

Yep... Wargaming (I play World of Warships) are shutting down their forums in favor of making everyone join their Discord server. To that I say.... makes me glad I never gave them a cent and cements my decision not to do so in the future.

I play WOT and was not aware of this. That will probably finally get me to abandon the game after something like 13 years. The advances they have made in the game have been great- the audio in particular has come a long way. But for some reason they keep shooting them selves in the foot with dumb decisions. I don’t know about the other games but the WOT player base has seen significant shrinkage as a result. This sounds like another bad move to me but maybe it’s a better option for a lot of people?

 

[1_rick]

maybe it’s a better option for a lot of people?

Depends on what you're thinking of. In my limited Discord experience, it's a lot worse for recorded information like FAQs.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Reddit already gutted forums, but it's old, Discord is doing it now.

Meh, Discord's just a mass of pointless memes.

 

[DukenukemX]

Manifest V3 is already here. It was added to the stable channel back in 2021. Mv3 addons have already been replacing the Mv2 versions on the Chrome addon website. Even uBlock Origin has a Mv3 version that the developer has had users testing since at least March. Manifest V2 entered deprecated status in June as planned and will be removed completely from Chrome in January next year.

Most web browsers currently support Manifest V2 and V3, but FireFox announced that V2 isn't going anywhere in the foreseeable future. If addons are moving to V3, it's because V3 doesn't alter their operations or don't have a choice since again Chrome is by far the #1 web browser. Fact is Manifest V3 is more restrictive than V2, and for no particular reason other than to fight ad blocking. Yes, Ublock works on Manifest V3 but obviously not as good as V2 versions.

There's a reason why Google keeps delaying the push for Manifest V3 only, because they know a lot of people would dump Chrome. 27% of Americans use Ad block, probably because half of them own iPhones, while 42% of the world uses Ad block, which again probably because the world mostly uses Android. There's a lot of incentive for Google to fight ad blocking, as they even stopped YouTube Vanced for Android devices. Except that they failed because now there's Revanced, along with NewPipe. More than likely, Manifest V3 would lose market share for Chrome, which is why there's so many delays. Which is why Google is doing things like web DRM and putting in user tracking into Chrome. Google wants to rock that boat, but doesn't want to lose the boat. More than likely Manifest V2 won't go anywhere and if FireFox were to remove Manifest V2, you can bet another web browser will take their place. I wouldn't be shocked if another addons standard were to appear that takes the best of V3 and V2.

We went through this back in the early 2000's with pop up ads and that didn't go well. We just moved to putting them into web sites, but that also pissed off users. The cycle will continue of push for ads and users blocking them. It starts with one or two ads, which isn't a problem but eventually you see web pages with more ads than content. A person with epilepsy could have a seizure with all the blinking ads a webpage has.

View: https://youtu.be/QU2psujyxfM?si=VsccFx8POMWavQAY

 

[TheSlySyl]

Regardless of what kind of browser you use, I strongly suggest just going with a full network based blocker like a pi-hole or Adguard Home and then a DNS based blocker for mobile data.

 

[1337Goat]

If it hasn't been mentioned yet, Vivaldi is a browser that is worth looking at. I don't use it currently, but I'm considering it more and more each day.



(Edit: Vivaldi is Chromium based. Let it all just burn.)

 

[Mazzspeed]

Regardless of what kind of browser you use, I strongly suggest just going with a full network based blocker like a pi-hole or Adguard Home and then a DNS based blocker for mobile data.

As someone that runs a Pi Hole, you need to keep in mind that if Google go full blown Manifest V3, a Pi Hole won't save you.

If it hasn't been mentioned yet, Vivaldi is a browser that is worth looking at. I don't use it currently, but I'm considering it more and more each day.

Or you could just use FF as Vivaldi is yet another Chromium based browser.

 

[DukenukemX]

Regardless of what kind of browser you use, I strongly suggest just going with a full network based blocker like a pi-hole or Adguard Home and then a DNS based blocker for mobile data.

I have OpenWRT in my router, and I installed adblock onto it, which works the same as pi-hole. This won't prevent all ads and does nothing for YouTube. The best solution is still to install an adblocker in your web browser. A pi-hole would help out on mobile devices to block ads for some apps, but again I have to resort to FireFox+Ublock and Revanced.

 

[1_rick]

As someone that runs a Pi Hole, you need to keep in mind that if Google go full blown Manifest V3, a Pi Hole won't save you.

Do browsers still support SOCKS proxies? I wonder if a modernized Proxomitron would work--it should do most of the things filter-based ad blockers do now, just completely outside the browser's control.

 

[TheSlySyl]

I have OpenWRT in my router, and I installed adblock onto it, which works the same as pi-hole. This won't prevent all ads and does nothing for YouTube. The best solution is still to install an adblocker in your web browser. A pi-hole would help out on mobile devices to block ads for some apps, but again I have to resort to FireFox+Ublock and Revanced.

Between my Adguard home and Ublock I haven't seen an ad on my PC in years. Hell, it even blocks my Roku ads. In theory it breaks some f2p mobile games, but, thats good.

I do, however, pay for YouTube Premium and have for years (a decade+ probably? Since it was YouTube Red and Google Play Music) - so I don't really worry about those ads.

 

[Tsumi]

I play WOT and was not aware of this. That will probably finally get me to abandon the game after something like 13 years. The advances they have made in the game have been great- the audio in particular has come a long way. But for some reason they keep shooting them selves in the foot with dumb decisions. I don’t know about the other games but the WOT player base has seen significant shrinkage as a result. This sounds like another bad move to me but maybe it’s a better option for a lot of people?

I'm sure the primary reason is to cut costs. Secondary reason is to get more people engaged on social media platforms- they're pushing people to join and pay for Youtube memberships now!

They're probably finding out, like google is, the current ad-supported freemium model is no longer the cash cow it once was. Either that or they're every bit as greedy and evil as Google is.

 

[DukenukemX]

I do, however, pay for YouTube Premium and have for years (a decade+ probably? Since it was YouTube Red and Google Play Music) - so I don't really worry about those ads.

YouTube Premium is actually worse than using UBlock and Sponsorblock. Revanced is like YouTube Premium but with sponsorblock, dislikes are back, and it even skips intros. Revanced will also play music with your phone screen off and while you're using other apps. iPhone owners don't now how bad they have it compared to Android.

 

[TheSlySyl]

YouTube Premium is actually worse than using UBlock and Sponsorblock. Revanced is like YouTube Premium but with sponsorblock, dislikes are back, and it even skips intros. Revanced will also play music with your phone screen off and while you're using other apps. iPhone owners don't now how bad they have it compared to Android.

My main YouTube use is on a Roku, where you can't use extensions. We watch literally dozens of hours of YouTube a week, paying for premium has gotten more use for us than paying for netflix or Hulu would.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Do browsers still support SOCKS proxies? I wonder if a modernized Proxomitron would work--it should do most of the things filter-based ad blockers do now, just completely outside the browser's control.

Manifest V3 has the capability to inspect the environment the site is run on, should the environment not be deemed as 'secure' (more like: The way Google and large corporations want you to interact with the site), the site will not be displayed. Blocking certain site elements either via proxy, via DNS holes, or via adblockers will result in the page not being displayed. Running the page with certain applications running in the background can result in the page not being displayed.

The only way to stop mass adoption of Manifest V3 is to stop using any browser based on Chromium - Period.

 

[DPI]

YouTube Premium is actually worse than using UBlock and Sponsorblock. Revanced is like YouTube Premium but with sponsorblock, dislikes are back, and it even skips intros. Revanced will also play music with your phone screen off and while you're using other apps. iPhone owners don't now how bad they have it compared to Android.

Can confirm. Have been running an S21 Ultra & iPhone 13 Pro Max side by side for six months because I wanted to de-google life and switch to iPhone, but too many showstoppers of functionality on android that can't be duplicated to iOS.

A newer S21/22/23 Galaxy properly de-bloated and adblocked just does everything at blur-speed. iPhone feels like running underwater comparatively - even its scrollspeed is limited and can't be sped up.

 

[1_rick]

Manifest V3 has the capability to inspect the environment the site is run on, should the environment not be deemed as 'secure' (more like: The way Google and large corporations want you to interact with the site), the site will not be displayed. Blocking certain site elements either via proxy, via DNS holes, or via adblockers will result in the page not being displayed. Running the page with certain applications running in the background can result in the page not being displayed.

The only way to stop mass adoption of Manifest V3 is to stop using any browser based on Chromium - Period.

First I've heard of that, and it sounds horrible. Guess it's time to start migrating from Edge to FF.

 

[Mazzspeed]

First I've heard of that, and it sounds horrible. Guess it's time to start migrating from Edge to FF.

That's the interesting part about Manifest V3, with the exception of discussion via Lemmy instances backed up by a few newsworthy sources, people appear blissfully unaware that the web is about to be compromised for the benefit of large corporations forever.

You can't even modify Chromium in an attempt to work around Manifest V3, as the API (more like DRM) will detect the browser has been compromised and refuse to browse the website in question.