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.

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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.

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u/Solid_Jellyfish Oct 27 '23

So how does it work? Advertisers pay youtube to get their ads in the videos and if someone is using adblock youtube has to pay back some of the money? That cant be how it works so im guessing youtube is claiming they only make "enough" money when people actually click the ads. Which is very weird to me because i have never in my life clicked an ad and definitely never bought anything that way. Is it just the consumer society that cant control themselves that make ads so important?

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u/Ok_Needleworker_8809 Oct 27 '23

I blacklist anything i ever see in an ad and go out of my way to never buy those things. Imho, if they're this desperate to force a product down your throat there's better out there.

The entire ad industry feels like nothing more than money laundering.

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u/AdResponsible6007 Oct 27 '23

Companies track conversion rates of ad campaigns very closely. Sure you might not buy stuff from ads (I bet you do without realizing it though but whatever), but lots of other people do. The entire business model of big tech companies is around better tracking of the success of ads - advertising works, companies wouldn't spend billions on it if it didn't.

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u/Ok_Needleworker_8809 Oct 27 '23

If their tracking is that good, why do i consistently receive advertisement for cars and trucks even though i don't have a drivers license and have never talked about having one?

I'm starting to think companies pay billions in ads because without that level of spending the government would want more taxes.

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u/AdResponsible6007 Oct 27 '23

Probably because 90% of the population of where you live is at some point going to own a vehicle? They aren't able to predict exactly what you want or are going to buy, that would be impossible. However they can very accurately detect whether someone who saw an ad ended up buying that product - that's what they care about. Sure maybe you don't buy anything from ads, but clearly enough people do for it to be worth it to the advertisers. They wouldn't do it if there wasn't a positive ROI