The mid-January release of the Chrome 88 browser will include privacy and security measures that raised concerns among some developers during recent months of testing.
Google announced in a blog post that new restrictions incorporated in the Manifest V3 programming interface for its browsers will be imposed on extensions, including ceilings on the number of rules extensions can execute as a web page loads. Rules are critical to popular ad blocker extensions that allow users to limit intrusive and annoying pop-up ads.
Those ad blockers utilized an API that provided them with “access to potentially sensitive user data,” Google stated. Chrome 88 will now require the use of a more restrictive API that Google says will protect users’ privacy.
