About google's attack on adblockers

[osprey]

Today google blocked my browser from using youtube because the browser, firefox, has the ghostery extension. Ghostery does adblocking as well as other helpful functions.

Since being logged into youtube at the time, when bringing up the youtube site, a notice appeared with a warning to disable the adblocker, or only 3 videos would be available.

After viewing the first video, the notice reappeared with the message saying there were only 2 videos left unless the adblocker was removed.

After the third video, the site went black on screen, and that was end of that.

On visiting the ghostery site, it had some info on the matter, and proposed a few means of evading the google ban, and fortunately, I was able to access videos again after logging out of youtube. If interested, see:

What's Happening with YouTube Ads?

Uncover the latest trends and changes in YouTube ads with Ghostery's analysis. Find out how to bypass youtube adblock detection.

www.ghostery.com

Ghostery has over a million users according to the figures on the firefox extensions search site, but uBlock Origin has over a 7 million, but I guess google is targeting all adblockers.

Despite google's attack upon adblocking, my use of firefox with an adblocker, then palemoon, brave and librewolf with their built-in adblockers, all worked on youtube as long as I didn't log into the youtube website.

The advantage of logging into youtube is that it uses an algorithm that suggests videos based on past viewing, and that has been useful in the past. Things change though.

 

[Condobloke]

as long as I didn't log into the youtube website

And therein lays the answer to that little piece of control by google

I do wonder if their maliciousness will discover a way to know when a person not logged in, is using an adblocker/ghostery etc ?

I would not dismiss that idea.

 

[Vimmer]

This is why i typically have firefox and chrome both installed...the firefox add ons give you a lot of web surfing freedom, but obviously web businesses do not like it.

I dont like the way chrome does add ons at all.

 

[KGIII]

Disable the built-in stuff and use uBlock Origin.

I haven't had to fuss with it for at least a month. If you do, someone will fix it quickly. Just remove your rules and sync the rules from the various servers. That works. If it doesn't work the first time, wait an hour or two.

This is 100% effective, so far. It may take a few hours, but new rules get pushed out quickly. This is especially true now that the fight is on with YouTube and the rule writers know about it.

Your other realistic option is to do the Invidious thing - which is a viable option. Just find a server that's stable and migrate to it. The instances they have listed on their site are stable. You can even import your channels.

 

[mrcrossroads]

Today google blocked my browser from using youtube because the browser, firefox, has the ghostery extension. Ghostery does adblocking as well as other helpful functions.

Since being logged into youtube at the time, when bringing up the youtube site, a notice appeared with a warning to disable the adblocker, or only 3 videos would be available.

After viewing the first video, the notice reappeared with the message saying there were only 2 videos left unless the adblocker was removed.

After the third video, the site went black on screen, and that was end of that.

On visiting the ghostery site, it had some info on the matter, and proposed a few means of evading the google ban, and fortunately, I was able to access videos again after logging out of youtube. If interested, see:

What's Happening with YouTube Ads?

Uncover the latest trends and changes in YouTube ads with Ghostery's analysis. Find out how to bypass youtube adblock detection.

www.ghostery.com

Ghostery has over a million users according to the figures on the firefox extensions search site, but uBlock Origin has over a 7 million, but I guess google is targeting all adblockers.

Despite google's attack upon adblocking, my use of firefox with an adblocker, then palemoon, brave and librewolf with their built-in adblockers, all worked on youtube as long as I didn't log into the youtube website.

The advantage of logging into youtube is that it uses an algorithm that suggests videos based on past viewing, and that has been useful in the past. Things change though.

If all you have to do is not log in, I'm good. I try to stay logged out of Google as much as possible.

 

[KGIII]

Ah, Google is fighting back again and has changed their code again.

uBlock will catch up. Well, they have so far throughout the many months of this war.

As a content creator, I can kind of understand wanting to monetize content. I'd rather people have access than block them from accessing the site. If they're going to block ads, I'm okay with that. The system I have set up may nudge you and try to get you to whitelist the site - but the content is still available even if you block ads.

Then again, I don't make a living from my content. I might feel more strongly if I did, but I don't and I don't.

At the end of the day, my goal is to inform people. If they block ads, that's fine. It'd be sweet if they didn't, but I don't lose sleep over it. Also, the majority of people appear to block ads and block the Google Analytics script from loading. The number is roughly 70% that block ads/the analytics script. (I can get accurate numbers from my raw server logs.)

 

[KGIII]

By the way, here's an Invidious instance for viewing YouTube without giving them any of your data - not even your IP address.

RHEL drops older PCs? Linux is at 4%, Mozilla's AI pivot - Linux & Open Source News

Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en# SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to a weekly podcast, vote on the next topics I cover, and get your name in the credits: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelinuxexp/join Patreon...

vid.puffyan.us

Yup. Linux (according to StatCounter) hit 4% on the desktop. It's an interesting video. I subscribe to their channel but don't always watch.

 

[KGIII]

Also, if you were using uBlock and YouTube was stopping you from watching, go ahead and purge your rules and update them. The've already fixed it. It took maybe two hours for a fix to ship. Sometimes it's faster than that.

 

[Alexzee]

When things go wrong and the Debian dev's discover things that we should know about, it goes right to my inbox.
I subscribed to the Debian Mailing List and the Debian Security Mailing List long ago.

https://www.debian.org/MailingLists/

https://www.debian.org/security/

An advisory was in my inbox today about Chromium.

 

[Condobloke]

Disable the built-in stuff and use uBlock Origin.

I haven't had to fuss with it for at least a month. If you do, someone will fix it quickly. Just remove your rules and sync the rules from the various servers. That works. If it doesn't work the first time, wait an hour or two.

This is 100% effective, so far. It may take a few hours, but new rules get pushed out quickly. This is especially true now that the fight is on with YouTube and the rule writers know about it.

Your other realistic option is to do the Invidious thing - which is a viable option. Just find a server that's stable and migrate to it. The instances they have listed on their site are stable. You can even import your channels.

That might be worth expanding on....dumb it down for boofheads like me, David

 

[Condobloke]

I don't have a youtube account either.......but I do have a google acount, in order for me to have a gmail address.

I never log into youtube via that google account (which is possible....it does work).....and I am constantly reminded that I am missing out on having them remember me and store suggestions for me based on my history there.

Furthermore, I am not "besotted" with youtube. It is a tool which I use when the occasion demands it. I never 'browse' youtube. I have better things to do with my time.

 

[KGIII]

That might be worth expanding on....dumb it down for boofheads like me, David

Click the uBlock Origin icon in the browser (assuming you have it showing).
Otherwise, show it and then click it.
Click the gear icon.
Click on Filter Lists.
Click on Purge all Caches.
Click on Update Now.

Refresh YouTube.
Tada! You have YouTube again, with blocked ads.

It may take a while for new filters to come down, but it's usually not long. Today was maybe two hours worth of wait time. Considering the price I pay, I consider that good service. (I pay nothing.)

It's pretty straight forward.

(I watch a lot of YouTube. Or at least have it on in the background.)

 

[bob466]

I got the 3 videos and you're out notice only once...then it disappeared...I still have Ublock Origin and Adblocker working on my 3 Browsers...one happens to be Google Chrome...go figure.

 

[osprey]

I don't have a youtube account either.......but I do have a google acount, in order for me to have a gmail address.

I never log into youtube via that google account (which is possible....it does work).....and I am constantly reminded that I am missing out on having them remember me and store suggestions for me based on my history there.

Furthermore, I am not "besotted" with youtube. It is a tool which I use when the occasion demands it. I never 'browse' youtube. I have better things to do with my time.

For those interested in music, especially musicians, and especially those interested in historical recordings of music, concerts, recitals, performances etc, there's nothing I know that compares to youtube. The "database", if one can call it that, is massive. It would seriously lower the quality of life for many people that I hang around with if it disappeared one day, not that it will, but that's a sort of measure of its significance to some.

In relation to some videos on linux say, the quality can be very variable, and much of the detail of some presentations can be found more formally, more precisely and more usefully in documentation elsewhere, but sometimes a presenter can hit the nail right on the head. On the other hand there's a lot of "general interest" linux info that I find interesting at times. Horses for courses. YMMV.

 

[The Duck]

For those interested in music, especially musicians, and especially those interested in historical recordings of music, concerts, recitals, performances etc, there's nothing I know that compares to youtube. The "database", if one can call it that, is massive. It would seriously lower the quality of life for many people that I hang around with if it disappeared one day, not that it will, but that's a sort of measure of its significance to some.

In relation to some videos on linux say, the quality can be very variable, and much of the detail of some presentations can be found more formally, more precisely and more usefully in documentation elsewhere, but sometimes a presenter can hit the nail right on the head. On the other hand there's a lot of "general interest" linux info that I find interesting at times. Horses for courses. YMMV.

I use Youtube quite a bit and just about anything and everything of value and non value can be found.

I'm a big follower of the Youtube how to videos as they have saved my behind quite a bit.

I also catch a lot of movies on Youtube and okay they may not be the latest but I like the classic old movies the best.

I've never understood the reason to create a Youtube account and the closet thing to a Google account I have are Gmail accounts.


" For those interested in music, especially musicians, and especially those interested in historical recordings of music, concerts, recitals, performances etc, there's nothing I know that compares to youtube. "

I agree 100%.

 

[KGIII]

The "database", if one can call it that, is massive. It would seriously lower the quality of life for many people that I hang around with if it disappeared one day, not that it will, but that's a sort of measure of its significance to some.

I think it meets the definition to be called a database, or close enough.

I subscribe to a ton of channels, more than I could watch. Heck, I subscribe to more than I can import to another application. (There appears to be a limit of 150 channels. You can split the file into sets, I suppose.)

I don't watch them all, but I want my home page to show stuff that interests me. YouTube is remarkably good at finding things that interest me. That algorithm, really many algorithms, is pretty good. I have YouTube streaming in the background during much of the day.

Also, if you have a Google account, you have a YouTube account - even if you've never used it. You can go to YouTube and use those credentials to log in. Your Google account is an SSO for all sorts of Google stuff.

 

[Condobloke]

Also, if you have a Google account, you have a YouTube account

Absolutely correct ! Some users do not realise just how tethered they are to Google via their gmail account/email address.

 

[bob466]

I haven't used Ghostery for years...so I installed it on my Browsers and watched several videos on youtube and nothing happened...must be lucky.

 

[mrcrossroads]

I haven't used Ghostery for years...so I installed it on my Browsers and watched several videos on youtube and nothing happened...must be lucky.

Ghostery is my go-to.

 

[osprey]

bob466 wrote:

I haven't used Ghostery for years...so I installed it on my Browsers and watched several videos on youtube and nothing happened...must be lucky.

The user needs to be logged into youtube for the restriction to take place. Ghostery works fine without the login but the user doesn't get the "benefits" of the algorithm that suggests other videos, which may be quite irrelevant for some users of course.