Developers’ Insight on Manifest v3 Privacy and Security Webextensions

Libor Polčák, Giorgio Maone, Michael McMahon, Martin Bednář

2025

Abstract

Webextensions can improve web browser privacy, security, and user experience. The APIs offered by the browser to webextensions affect possible functionality. Currently, Chrome transitions to a modified set of APIs called Manifest v3. This paper studies the challenges and opportunities of Manifest v3 with an in-depth structured qualitative research. Even though some projects observed positive effects, a majority express concerns over limited benefits to users, removal of crucial APIs, or the need to find workarounds. Our findings indicate that the transition affects different types of webextensions differently; some can migrate without losing functionality, while others remove functionality or decline to update. The respondents identified several critical missing APIs, including reliable APIs to inject content scripts, APIs for storing confidential content, and others.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Polčák L., Maone G., McMahon M. and Bednář M. (2025). Developers’ Insight on Manifest v3 Privacy and Security Webextensions. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST; ISBN 978-989-758-772-6, SciTePress, pages 15-26. DOI: 10.5220/0013669000003985

in Bibtex Style

@conference{webist25,
author={Libor Polčák and Giorgio Maone and Michael McMahon and Martin Bednář},
title={Developers’ Insight on Manifest v3 Privacy and Security Webextensions},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST},
year={2025},
pages={15-26},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013669000003985},
isbn={978-989-758-772-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST
TI - Developers’ Insight on Manifest v3 Privacy and Security Webextensions
SN - 978-989-758-772-6
AU - Polčák L.
AU - Maone G.
AU - McMahon M.
AU - Bednář M.
PY - 2025
SP - 15
EP - 26
DO - 10.5220/0013669000003985
PB - SciTePress