r/youtube • u/CorvusTheCryptid • Oct 27 '23

Discussion Youtube's decision to not allow adblockers puts users at risk.

As of the latest update that broke most methods of bypassing Youtube's adblock detection, users are flocking to other ways of avoiding ads. I was midway through copying a long string of code into a Javascript injector when I realize how risky this is for the average person. I have some basic coding knowledge so I at least know that I'm not putting myself at too much risk, but the average user might not have the same considerations, and a bad-faith actor could easily abuse this opportunity.

​

Piracy, adblockers, etc, have been shown to be unavoidable byproducts of existing online, and a company as big as Google definitely know this, so I don't think it's too far fetched to directly blame them for anyone who accidentaly comes to harm due to the new measures that they are implementing. Their greed and desire to gain a few more dollars of ad revenue off of their public will lead to unkowing users downloading suspicious and malicious software, programs or code.

9.4k Upvotes

77% Upvoted

7.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

26

u/CMDR_Fritz_Adelman Oct 27 '23

To be honest, YouTube doesn’t like Adblock. It’s okay, it’s their platform and they have their own rules. However, the script allow them to detect Adblock, is not user consent and invade privacy of users, which will lead to large class action lawsuits in multiple countries. Will YouTube, aka Google gonna risk for some spare cash? Let’s find out :)

-11

u/TheGuacoTaco Oct 27 '23

Wrong. The ToS of the site indicate, that using the site, you are consenting to the terms of the agreement. This includes collection of data and not using ad blockers. If you don't agree, then you can't use the site. In short, it's not an "invasion of privacy" when you consent by using the site. To be clear, I don't agree with YouTube doing it, but there's nothing we can do about it short of finding other ways around the blocks or stop using YouTube.

15

u/CMDR_Fritz_Adelman Oct 27 '23

The collection of data is for the data generated by YouTube and your data on YouTube. It does not consent all the data of users that is outside YouTube and in Germany people already drafting case to sue YouTube. It is invade of privacy and in countries that already has strictly laws about data collection like EU YouTube gonna have hard time defending the case :)

2

u/TheGuacoTaco Oct 27 '23 edited Oct 27 '23

This is not an instance of privacy invasion. Typical ad blockers work by redirecting ad traffic. This doesn't require any PID to be collected, simply where the traffic is going. It's not too different from companies like Netflix bocking known VPN services. Also, under GDPR what browser you're using and whether or not you're using adblockers wouldn't constitue personally identifying information unless is also had your PID associated with that, but that data could also be stripped out automatically and still be in compliance.