Youtube let the other shoe drop in their end-stage enshittification this week. Last month, they required you to turn on Youtube History to view the feed of youtube videos recommendations. That seems reasonable, so I did it. But I delete my history every 1 week instead of every 3 months. So they don’t get much from my choices. It still did a pretty good job of showing me stuff I was interested in watching.

Then on Oct 1, they threw up a “You’re using an Ad Blocker” overlay on videos. I’d use my trusty Overlay Remover plugin to remove the annoying javascript graphic and watch what I wanted. I didn’t have to click the X to dismiss the obnoxious page.

Last week, they started placing a timer with the X so you had to wait 5 seconds for the X to appear so you could dismiss blocking graphic.

Today, there was a new graphic. It allowed you to view three videos before you had to turn off your Ad Blocker. I viewed a video 3 times just to see what happens.

Now all I see is this.

Google has out and out made it a violation of their ToS to have an ad blocker to view Youtube. Or you can pay them $$$.

I ban such sites from my systems by replacing their DNS name in my hosts file routed to 127.0.0.1 which means I can’t view the site. I have quite a few banned sites now.

  • db2@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    But I delete my history every 1 week instead of every 3 months. So they don’t get much from my choices.

    Implying that deleting them from your view actually deleted them.

    • caesar_salad83@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      doesn’t even matter. what matters is the meta data. if the data from the list say you like science videos with emphasis on electrical engineering, star wars podcasts and mmorpg let’s plays - does that data go away apon history deletion. what about meta-meta data. if the meta data puts you on group X that receive content Y, does that go away apon history deletion. and what kind of integration does that get with the rest of the google knowledge about you…

        • luciferofastora@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          How can my workplace admin block Pornhub even when I’m using private mode? He shouldn’t even be allowed to see what I do privately!

          • Kushan@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            I mean, this is mostly borne from a fundamental misunderstanding of what “Private Browsing” mode is and was meant to be.

            When you open an incognito tab on Chrome, it literally says “Now you can browse privately, and other people who use this device won’t see your activity.”

            It also says

            Your activity might still be visible to:

            • Websites that you visit
            • Your employer or school
            • Your Internet service provider

            Fuck using Chrome and I’m not defending Google at all here, but they never once claimed Incognito was anything more than it was.

            • luciferofastora@lemmy.zipEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              Pretty sure Firefox says that too. Users just don’t read. Like, ever. They’ll get an error message saying “Important!” and click whatever button seems most likely to make it go away before calling support and demanding they “fix the computer”.

    • atetulo@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Greed, by definition, has no limits.

      What happens when they block adblockers? Do you think they’re just going to stop there? Or will they go from 3 ads every 10 minute to 4 ads every 10 minutes?

      Greed, by definition, has no limits.

      The solution to the problem is to have higher standards. But people with low standards get mad whenever that’s pointed out.

      They’re useful idiots for a reason.