I already try to consciously not click YouTube links in my primary browser to avoid this. I load them in a backup browser with no privacy tools or, much more often, download them directly for local viewing. Fuck Google and their ads.
I don’t click on YouTube links at all… Gimme something written, not shitty videos with a lot of filler for revenues.
Movie trailers are a good reason to use YouTube from time to time.
I don’t watch those, either.
Well then… No need for YT.
So I would like someone to maybe try to confirm this, but I’ve been rightclicking and then opening in private browser if there is something I want to check out but don’t want to dominate my feed.
However, I’ve been finding that I still am sometimes getting these things presented to me as if I care. I am beginning to suspect that YT is either a) tracking mouse coordinates and clicks, and using these or b) some kind of ip/ browser based finger printing that gets around private/ incognito browsing.
I’m on firefox, and running pop_os, so if any one else could weigh in anecdotally, I’m very interested.
Private mode deletes cookies and browsing history on your device, it has no impact on the amount of information sent out to browsers and your ISP.
Okay but so how is activity I’m doing in private mode relating back to non-private mode? Are they tracking mouse activity? Is this browser finger printing? How would I be able to figure that out?
I’m not entirely sure how they do it, but I do know alot of information is relayed to websites that can be used to fingerprint and track you. Even if you aren’t logged in they know where you are and what device you are using. Alot of this depends on how hardened the browser you are using is, because its entirely up to the browser to block this information.
You can try to confuse the data a bit with a VPN, but I’m not sure if a VPN alone counts for much these days.
If you really want no fingerprint you can try either of these two technologies:
TOR is a way to browse the internet that makes it very hard to fingerprint you. The network’s bandwidth is limited and there are people in oppressive regimes who legitimately need this though, so I think it would be a waste to use it for regular browsing.
WHONIX is used by Edward Snowden himself. Its an OS within a virtual machine that is entirely reset everytime its run. It has alot of built-in privacy tools, but its not very convenient to use.
I personally use Brave with as many shield options on as possible, alongside a VPN when I think its necessary. On mobile I sometimes use Kiwi, which is unfortunately no longer available. Its the only browser I’ve found that actually masks whether your device is a phone or PC.
So I’m as hardened as I think I can get on Firefox.
My real suspicion is that its tracking cursor positions. I’ve been trying to figure out an experimental design I could use to confirm this.
It could be possible, but what makes you suspect they’re tracking cursor positions?
Because its the only interaction I can think of that they might have access to. And I know some websites do this. I’m opening them in private windows because I specifically don’t want them to get into my feed, and the only interaction I’m having is to move my cursor over them and then to right click.
I’d rather foot the bill directly. I’d rather pay for shit if it costs something. I’d rather the businesses that I do business with work harder to make their products better rather than work harder to make me click on ads.
Unfortunately they seem to make products better until they reach saturation, then they split into tiers, raise prices (and/or lower offerings - looking at you Max) and start introducing ads into paid tiers.
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I’d rather not give them a dime of my hard-earned money.
AI has to advance to a point it can reliably ID someone using the camera despite different models and potential obstructions.
This scenario is obviously incredibly unlikely and some dystopian shit. They’ll make the ads interactive first, if anything, the interaction being a requirement to move on. In either scenario, I’m just leaving. I pay for Amazon Prime. The delivery service works really well where I live. I won’t go on the video service because there might be ads. I am so turned off by ads, it makes it super easy to just not use shit.
Where YouTube Premium, and Spotify, and any number of services that I pay for (on a family plan I share with five friends), differ from Amazon is that none of them are tied to some other valuable service. If any of them hit me with ads, I’m out, ezpz. I was 13 in 2020. I pirated 'everything, because I didn’t have any money. I don’t pirate anymore because I am 37, and I have money, and I have no problem paying for good services. But I’ll equate not having money at 13 with refusing to pay for ads at 37, in that pirating is the solution to both problems.
I was 13 in 2020
I am 37That’s not how time works…
Ha, it’s definitely not, but I can’t go back and change my comment now, so I must accept the shame.
Time traveler
Hopefully by that point, it can also be used to generate a fake video file of “someone paying attention” to output to a virtual camera :)
It would be the same technology, because both use cases would require AI to have built an accurate model of what human faces look like
uBlock. Use it. Stop that masochism. Remove ads. Get some self-esteem.
Sponsorblock too
I don’t mind sponsorship segments as much. A good content creator finds a way to make those entertaining as well. And if they don’t, a couple presses of the arrow keys does the job.
A “couple presses of the arrow keys” can overshoot, forcing you to hunt around with the mouse to find the content.
SponsorBlock has an option to skip the segment with a single button press (instead of auto-skipping). You should give it a try before you judge. It’s really convenient.
Children used to work in mines, surely you could scoot a playhead
Mate what the fuck are you on about?
finally someone who gets it. there are some creators out there who actually make interesting bits out of their sponsorships
I disable Sponsorskip on Some More News because I like watching Cody chug that disgusting looking green stuff. I’m a simple man.
I think it’s also good to remember that, creators who bake in their sponsorships are USUALLY paid upfront for the space.
Meaning, just skip that shit if it’s not for you. They already got the money.
At least, this is how I have come to understand sponsorships.
It doesn’t affect them getting paid, that’s correct.
But It does negatively affect their stats which can affect their ability to grow and get that video/their channel seen more. Youtube tracks things like retention and watch %, it matters.
creators who bake in their sponsorships are USUALLY paid upfront for the space.
Sure, although if they have a promo code they’re usually getting a percentage kickback from that as well. That’s what the whole Honey scandal was about, PayPal injecting affiliate links and stealing commission from the very people they had paid to advertise their service (and also everyone else).
Maybe there are 5% of channels that produce interesting ads, but:
- 95% don’t
- I don’t come there to watch ads, good or bad
Tomska comes to mind as a pretty hilarious example - not just because he turns them into skits, thats normal enough. He had a whole saga trying to figure out how far he could push the boundries of the VPN company sponsoring him before they would start intervening. It started off simple enough, with the South Park philosophy of “Add provocative stuff so they cut that, rather than the jokes we like.” Rather than editting they script, the approved it as is. He thought it was funny, and took that as a challenge. After increasingly crass and violent ads (on-brand for him, and with appropriate content warnings) eventually ended up going so far as to include an ad that even he considers way too far. Said ad later had to be editted out of the video it was included in. In my opinion, despite obviously being very all ads, its collectively some of the funniest content hes made.
He’s his videos recapping the saga:
Internet Historian is a good example
Internet Historian is also, unfortunately, a Nazi. Or at the very least alt-right and full of dog whistles.
It’s a shame, because his content—even the stuff he outright stole—was funny. But the evidence is staggering if you look for it.
For some reason I’ve been getting the “ad blockers violate the terms of service” nag lately on my firefox browser with ublock origin. My Brave browser doesn’t get it though. Any ideas?
I got that, too, yesterday and the first time I got a helpful pop-up from uBO suggesting I watch in a private window. But simply reloading the page was enough to get the video to play each time it popped up yesterday.
uBlock isn’t “install and forget”; it needs some initial setup. Add some “filter lists” and overall look what is there in the settings.
Still, you should think about that self-esteem thing. Why do you still use that site with “ad blockers violate the terms of service” nagging? Do you really need it?
Genuine question, where else can you find a slew of car repair videos?
I installed it and did the setup and it worked great for many months. Then, in the last few days, something changed, though I made no changes to my browser or ublock. Today it works fine. Yesterday I was getting the nag. I didn’t make any changes from yesterday to today.
Youtube did something recently and uBlock had to update in response. I think it was automatically rolled out sometime “last night.”
I might be wrong but I think ad blocker warnings show up briefly after YouTube updates its detection methods. They vanish once filter lists catch up. It’s an ongoing cat-and-mouse game.
To reduce these warnings, update your ad blocker’s filter lists or they’ll eventually they do so automatically.
Update Filters: In uBlock Origin, open the dashboard, go to the “Filter lists” tab, and click “Update now.” Keeping uBlock itself updated helps too.
thanks!
Some sites actively try to fight adblockers while adblockers try to block anti-adblocking code on such sites. Most probably you’re watching the process of upgrading anti-adblock scripts on such site.
Youtube/Google is known to bully and lash out against Firefox users first, they use that as a hybrid strategy to make people use Google Chrome more (other market, same corposcum). Not surprised.
This happened to me with Ublock, I guess the cat and mouse game isn’t over
What’s frustrating is that they’re finally starting to figure out some way to fight them. Been using it for years and last week or so I kept getting dumbass pop-ups that were both unresponsive and ineffectual as ads. All they did was flash a logo and then freeze the player, very frustrating.
Foot the bill
Send feet pics to YouTube HQ
Receive small rock collection as a prize!
I swear, YouTube uses the camera on my phone/tablet to detect if I am facing the screen or not. It doesn’t have ‘permission’ to do access the camera, but the behavior is too consistent to be a coincidence.
I can’t fall asleep to silence. I have to have something playing to keep me from being alone with my thoughts, or I will literally never sleep. So I watch YouTube videos while Im tying to fall asleep. I skip every ad as soon as it will let me when facing the screen. Every time, and I mean literally every time I turn over so my back is to the screen, YouTube will start playing one of those long ass ads, ones that will go on for 1/2 hr or more if I don’t turn back over and hit ‘skip’. It’s just too consistent to be random.
The best is when it’s the ad for the stupid ass ‘superhero’ audiobook where the main character is the only person who doesn’t have a superpower and gets picked on, and by picked on I mean they force him to watch as they SA his girlfriend. I have done the thing where you can request they don’t show you that particular ad at least a dozen times now and it never helps.
I already know that guy will get his superpower eventually. I already know that he will get his revenge on his bullies. Its about the most obvious, 5th grade level writing you could imagine. Nothing about it appeals to me, I hate that fucking ad with a passion.
I can’t fall asleep to silence. I have to have something playing to keep me from being alone with my thoughts, or I will literally never sleep.
I have experienced this. Something that helped me is “cognitive shuffling.” Essentially forcing your thoughts to drift.
The technique I learned was this:
Pick a word, preferably one with lots of different letters.
Start with the first letter. Think of as many objects starting with that letter as you can, and picture them. You don’t need to be rigid about this, and don’t waste time trying to come up with objects if you’re stuck, just move onto the next letter. If you finish the word, pick a new one. But I don’t know that I’ve ever finished a word before falling asleep.
The idea is this sort of directed but disconnected thinking helps put your mind into the sort of state that lets sleep come. And when I’m diligent about it, it works like a charm. It’s like a way to actively fall asleep.
Unfortunately because it requires some effort I often don’t do it. But I do recommend it!
and by picked on I mean they force him to watch as they SA his girlfriend.
I guarantee you that’s against YouTube’s ad platform’s TOS too.
I tried flagging it as such when I asked them to stop showing me the ad. Either they are fine with it or the advertiser found some loophole to get around the TOS. It’s possible they edited the ad copy so that the SA is only implied now, I don’t really pay attention anymore.
I also didn’t even mention the bullies SA the protagonist as well, at least they heavily imply it and mention the blood in his underwear. Gross.
Newpipe
Also invidious and peertube.
Awesome, thank you. I just installed it and it seems to be working great.
Also signing up for PeerTube as well. 👍
I’m convinced social media algorithms show you content you choose not to see because they count “don’t show me this again” as engagement.
If you haven’t tried it yet, I’ve listened to “nothing much happens” podcast for years and years now and it helps me fall asleep faster. If you don’t like this one in specific, there’s plenty of the same genre online for you to try. I prefer sleep specific content because the audio does not have any sudden changes or loud noises. Also screens on while sleeping decrease sleep quality, IIRC
I appreciate the recommendation, I’ll look into it thanks.
There are a few channels like that I watch, one is “History to fall asleep to” or something like that.
I just downloaded NewPipe, and on there you can turn off the screen and just have the audio playing, so that’s awesome.
It’s tricky for me, because if the show is too boring, my mind will wander and I’ll start to get anxious, thinking about things I shouldn’t. Conversely if it’s too exciting, I’ll get too into it and it’ll wake me back up lol
I know, I’m kind of a mess.
To make matters worse most sleeping medicine doesn’t work at all for me, and the only one I’ve found that does gives me dry mouth to the point it gags me.
I hope this one is just the right amount of interesting for you. I particularly like that there are recurring characters and you can keep up with, and “cameo” style apearences and references if different episodes. Easy enough to ignore if you’re not into that. My favorites are the baker and the cat Marmelade. Best of luck sleeping!
fuck youtube. use a front end instead.
It’s like saying “fuck coca cola, drink from a glass instead”.
please elaborate. i’m curious if i was given misinfo on front ends! pls & ty :)
I mean that ultimately it’s still youtube, just with a different frontend, and google will keep fighting and blocking them. The ultimate fuck would be a real independent competitor, but that ain’t happening.
ohhh, gotcha! i’ve been seeing Nebula mentioned here & there. def gonna give that a look.
I really wish I could like Nebula but the problem is that there privacy policy is extremely lacking. As in collects a lot of demographic information and others forms that they can share.
I really want to like it though.
Eh, too on the nose to be funny.
You can have my eyeballs on your ads when you out then from my cold, dead head.
The next thing after DRM is ARM (Attention Rights Management)
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You joke but there’s a patent for that exact technology
Sony patented that I think
They’ve never actually used it, so it prevents others from doing that. Good guy Sony.
Just kidding, if they didn’t think we’d tear them to shreds over it, they’d do it in a heartbeat.
scripts or it didn’t happen
The are others.
Odysee.com ; Nebula.com ; Peertube ; Dailymotion ; Tubi.com for TV and movies ; Bitchute ; Rumble ;
Kick ; and more than you have time to watch in a dayNebula is awesome. But if you’re going to pay for a video service, you could also pay for YouTube Premium and not get ads regardless of your ad blocking setup, AND support the people whose videos you watch (at least a little, certainly more than ad-supported viewers).
(Nebula is better than YouTube for specific genres, but YouTube is of course more broad and contains most of what Nebula has.)
Sure but Nebula is cheaper than youtube premium AND pays it’s creators more because it’s a platform owned by it’s creators.
Every time I’ve tried to use an alternative it hasn’t had anything that grabbed my interest. If you say I’m not looking hard enough, you’ve missed the point of why I’m currently on a short video platform instead of watching a TV show or movie. If I have to look hard you’ve already lost me.
The library
Odysee is right-wing libertarian circle jerk
Kick is just streamin and criminal activity, no?
yeah, absolutely degenerates rooting for absolute degenerates. it’s like if you took the dumbest people on /b/ and gave them a platform that encourages them to be worse.
Vimeo
Some industry people are amazingly entitled about your obligation to participate in their business model. Jack Valenti, a former president of the Motion Picture Association of America, once literally called muting commercials or leaving the room during them “theft of programming”.
So im assuming a bunch of people are filming themselves walking out of a room with commercials playing and sending it to him with a big FU in the subject line?
Well probably not, since he’s been dead almost 20 years. He made his statement during the Napster era, when copyright was more in the news.
ReVanced baby 🤘🏻
