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> Those permissions are necessary for any blocker to perform its function.

Not blockers for Safari like Wipr that use Content Blocking Extensions: https://giorgiocalderolla.com/wipr.html



Content Blocking Extensions are pretty neat from a privacy perspective, but they're quite limited in functionality since they're basically glorified block lists (why you'd pay $2 for a list that's freely published is another question) and it requires support from the platform. uBlock supports a lot of features that CBE apps can't.


Especially when you can block many things on a local router.


uBlock origin has a lot of features beyond being a simple ad domain blacklist. You can remove elements from websites at wish. It can spoof information about which fonts you have installed to websites, block WebRTC and more. A pure ad blocker with a smaller feature scope will require fewer permissions. While I have not read the source code my self I have a hard time believing that uBlock origin is not limited to the lowest amount possible of required permissions to do the job it does.




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