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Mozilla is preparing to ship new AI privacy controls in Firefox 148, including a dedicated settings section and a global “kill switch” (Block AI enhancements) intended to disable all current and future browser AI features at once. The change is positioned as a way to reduce unwanted AI prompts and to prevent AI-related data sharing via external processing/API calls; the controls are being tested in Firefox Nightly with feedback solicited via Mozilla’s community channels.
Separately, academic researchers reported that Google Chrome’s Manifest v3 (MV3) extension architecture does not materially degrade ad-blocking and anti-tracking effectiveness compared with Manifest v2 (MV2), based on a study published in Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PoPETs). The work evaluates the practical impact of MV3’s shift away from the blocking (synchronous) chrome.webRequest API toward the more constrained chrome.declarativeNetRequest model, concluding there was no statistically significant reduction in blocking performance and, in some cases, slight improvements in tracker blocking.
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Mozilla said Firefox 148 would be released on 2026-02-24 with a dedicated AI settings section that lets users disable all current and future AI features or manage individual capabilities such as translations, link previews, tab grouping, and PDF alt-text generation. Disabling AI features will also stop related external data-sharing API calls.
Mozilla started testing new desktop AI controls in Firefox Nightly, including a global 'Block AI enhancements' toggle and per-feature settings, while soliciting user feedback through the Mozilla Connect community hub.
Researchers affiliated with Goethe University Frankfurt published a peer-reviewed PoPETs study concluding that Chrome's Manifest v3 did not cause a statistically significant drop in ad-blocking or anti-tracking effectiveness compared with Manifest v2, and slightly improved anti-tracking on average.
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Mozilla is adding new desktop-browser controls in *Firefox 148* that let users **manage or fully disable built-in generative AI features**, including a single “**Block AI enhancements**” toggle designed to turn off current and future AI capabilities in one action. When enabled, the toggle is intended to suppress AI-related prompts and notifications and prevent exposure of AI features in the UI, addressing privacy and security concerns from users and organizations that want to reduce potential attack surface introduced by AI-driven functionality. The per-feature controls allow users to independently enable/disable specific AI functions, including **page translation**, **automatic alt-text generation for images in PDFs**, **AI-assisted tab grouping**, and **link previews** that summarize destination pages before navigation. Firefox also includes an **AI chatbot sidebar** that can integrate with multiple third-party models/services (e.g., **Anthropic Claude**, **ChatGPT**, **Microsoft Copilot**, **Google Gemini**, and others), with the centralized kill switch providing an organization-friendly way to opt out of these capabilities entirely.
Jun 29, 2026
Mozilla said an upcoming *Firefox* release will add centralized controls to disable generative-AI capabilities, including a single **“Block AI enhancements”** toggle intended to prevent current and future AI features (and related prompts) from being enabled in the desktop browser. The controls are expected to allow per-feature management of AI functions such as translations, PDF image alt-text generation, AI-assisted tab grouping, link previews, and sidebar chatbot access. Separately, OpenAI announced product changes around its developer and ChatGPT ecosystems, including a Mac-only *Codex* app positioned as a multi-agent “command center” with sandboxing intended to limit file writes and network access, and plans to retire **GPT-4o** and several other ChatGPT models as usage shifts to **GPT-5.2**. In parallel, a security warning highlighted a report alleging two widely used AI coding assistants were **exfiltrating all ingested code to China**, underscoring the need for enterprise controls over AI developer tools, data residency, and code/IP handling.
Jun 29, 2026
Google is completing the removal of **Manifest V2** extensions in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, with enforcement beginning in **Chrome 150** and tightening further in **Chrome 151**. The change disables legacy extensions through controls such as `kExtensionManifestV2Disabled`, while temporary enterprise and developer overrides including `AllowLegacyMV2Extensions`, `kExtensionManifestV2Unsupported`, and `ExtensionManifestV2Availability` are being phased out. Google has tied the move to reducing technical debt and addressing security concerns in older extension-handling code. The deprecation directly affects **uBlock Origin**, whose classic version depends on the `webRequest` API that Manifest V3 replaces with the more restrictive `declarativeNetRequest` model. As a result, Chrome users are being pushed toward **uBlock Origin Lite**, which offers reduced functionality compared with the original extension. Reports indicate that Microsoft Edge and Opera are likely to follow Chromium’s upstream policy, while Firefox and Safari continue supporting the older extension model, and Brave and Vivaldi may remain alternatives for users who want stronger content-blocking capabilities.
Jun 29, 2026