I have an extension with a few hundred users (Reddit Slideshow) that's going to need to be updated in a way that will reduce privacy. Manifest V3 prevents some of the things I need to do for it to make network requests. The only solution is to deploy a central proxy that can make these requests and funnel all client requests through that proxy. Theoretically I could use that proxy to track my users. At the moment I do no tracking whatsoever. I'm sure its going to cause a bunch of users to uninstall no matter how much I promise I won't track them.
A very popular extension, Hoverzoom, does the same things I need to do so its author will need the same solution, or severely limit its functionality. ...and I doubt the author will be able to support a proxy service with the volume it would get.
You don't understand, V3 is very important to enhance user privacy. Details about how it will decrease user privacy must fall to the wayside in favor of the important goal of increasing user privacy.
And the secondary effects of it also nerfing adblockers is completely unrelated. It's about user privacy.
There is no change in privacy. Under v2 you could intercept and modify requests within the client. Under v3, you can only do that via a proxy. It’s the same lack of privacy. You always had to trust the extension author to not be malicious.
V3 only makes it obvious both to users and to the site being requested that there is a man in the middle.
A very popular extension, Hoverzoom, does the same things I need to do so its author will need the same solution, or severely limit its functionality. ...and I doubt the author will be able to support a proxy service with the volume it would get.