Extensions and the Sverk Shield blocker

The Sverk Shield blocker

Sverk Shield comes with Sverk and works from the first run: it stops requests to ad networks and trackers, hides cookie banners (clicking nothing in them) and warns before sites on the lists of the Bank of Russia, of financial regulators of Cyprus, France and the EU, and PhishTank. The lists are checked on the computer; addresses go nowhere.

The shield button is on the toolbar or under Extensions; its number counts requests blocked on this page. If the blocker breaks a site, click the shield and clear Блокировать на этом сайте (“Block on this site”; this window is in Russian only): the page reloads unblocked, dangerous-site warnings stay.

The rest is in Settings → Ad blocking: the levels Standard, Strict (adds “subscribe” overlays, social buttons, chats; breaks more sites) and Off, Hide cookie banners and Sites with blocking off.

Off turns Sverk Shield off entirely, dangerous-site warnings and video download included. Do not remove it: it would not come back to this profile by itself. After a settings reset, turn it back on with its switch on chrome://extensions.

It updates its lists from Sverk's server: at launch, then hourly to every five hours, sending only the blocker version, system and language. This cannot be turned off.

What it does not do:

• promise that a site without a warning is safe: phishing pages appear faster than lists;
• work in Incognito windows, unless Allow in Incognito is on in its Details.

Installing extensions

Extensions come from the Chrome Web Store (⋮ → Extensions → Visit Chrome Web Store); on installing, Sverk asks Add "…"? — confirm with Add extension. Installing contacts Google's store, as the privacy policy says.

A .crx file downloaded from another site is not installed: Extensions and apps cannot be added from this website. If you trust its source, turn on Developer mode on chrome://extensions and drag the file onto that page.

Not from Chrome Web Store. on a card means just that — Sverk Shield has it too. Chrome on Windows turns such extensions off; Sverk does not.

Safety Check (on the extensions page and in settings) lists Sverk Shield as an extension that may be unsafe: Sverk can't verify where this extension comes from. That is said of anything not updating from the store; Sverk Shield updates from Sverk's server. Do not remove it: click ⋮ next to it and choose Keep this extension.

Enhanced Safe Browsing notes never appear: Google Safe Browsing is off in Sverk.

Site access

An extension with access to a site reads and changes its pages. You choose where on chrome://extensions: Details for the extension, Site access:

• On click — on the open page, after you click the extension's button;
• On specific sites — on the sites in your list;
• On all sites.

The same choice is in the extension button's right-click menu, under This can read and change site data.

Sverk Shield needs On all sites. It blocks requests to ad networks without it, but where it has no access it does not hide ad blocks, warn about a dangerous site or find videos to download.

Extensions that are no longer supported

Sverk is built on Chromium 155, which no longer runs Manifest V2 extensions: Sverk turns them off, and they cannot be turned back on. A new one does not install: Cannot install extension because it uses an unsupported manifest version.

On chrome://extensions they are at the top, under This extension was turned off because it's no longer supported. What you can do:

• wait for a Manifest V3 version: once it updates, Sverk turns the extension back on;
• click ⋮ next to it and choose Find alternative — the store shows similar ones (for extensions from the store);
• remove it with Remove.

An extension changed your settings

An extension can replace the home page, the new tab and the search engine. Sverk then asks whether you meant it:

• when you click Home — Is this the home page you were expecting?, with Restore settings and Keep changes;
• on a new tab — Did you mean to change this page?;
• after a search from the address bar — Did you mean to change your search provider? or Change back to …?; the last two have Change it back and Keep it.

Restore settings and Change it back turn the extension off, not remove it; while it is off, its replacements do not apply, and Sverk's own new tab is back.

To undo it later, open Search engine, On startup or Appearance in settings: you will see … is controlling this setting with the extension's name and a Disable button. Or turn the extension off on chrome://extensions.

Didn't find the answer?

Write to us at support@sverk.ai: what you did, what you expected to see and what you saw. Other topics are in the help contents.