Greetings y’all. I’ve been using ways to circumvent YouTube ads for years now. I’d much rather donate to creators directly instead of using Google as a middle man, needing YouTube Premium. If even pay for premium for just a add free version, if the price wouldn’t be so outrageous. I’ve So far used adblockers, Vanced and then Revanced.
Since the recent developments in this matter, I’ve setup Tubearchivist, a self hosted solution to download YouTube videos for later consumption. It mostly works great, with a few minor things that bother me but I highly recommend it. ReVanced also still works, but nobody knows for how long.
The question now is, if I should use a VPN to obscure my identity to Google. I don’t know if I’m being paranoid here but I wouldn’t put it past Google to block my account, if they see YouTube traffic for my IP address and no served ads. Revanced even uses my main Google account, so not that far fetched.
So far, or at least to my knowledge, Google has never done this but I think they just might in the future. So I’m planning on putting tubearchivist behind a VPN via gluetun.
What do you think? I’m eager to hear your opinions on this.
I can also add my docker compose, if there’s interest and when I’m back on my PC.
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Or just use Piped, Invidious or any other frontend https://pluja.github.io/awesome-privacy/#youtube
I don’t see any ads in years, just don’t use youtube.com. whether on PC, phone, Android TV.
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I mostly watch YouTube on iOS, Apple TV, or the web on my work computer. So piped etc is not an option for me, this works well.
You have Yattee, works on iOS/AppleTV https://github.com/yattee/yattee
Yeah I’m not sideloading anything that’s not worth me saving $2 a month.
What’s wrong with sideloading free and open source software?
Effort
Just realized that this is about Yattee, you don’t even have to sideload it, it’s on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yattee/id1595136629. Just follow this guide to set it up, it takes 2 minutes.
Is Piped blocked on your work computer? If yes, there’s a guide on how to easily bypass any website block.
Holy shitballs, this is amazing.
Right? Glad I could help :)
I know this is a possibility, but also a risk. The land where you purchased youtube premium doesn’t match your home address so Google notice. Do you use your primary account for this? Do you need a foreign credit card?
I use my home countries credit card no problem! You may have to manually approve the international charge depending on your bank. Been doing it for over 5 years now, no issues yet. I use my primary account, although I don’t use any google services other than YT so I don’t care if my account gets suspended.
Yeah, there’s a big difference between “random country” and “home country”.
I experimented with this some time ago and failed because I didn’t have a credit card from the foreign country to pay with. I’m sure this can be circumvented with some effort, but it’s not trivial.
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Don’t. Don’t install Google spyware on your phone and don’t give this garbage company even a fraction of a cent. Also, stop pretending that it’s impossible to block ads on YouTube, there are many ways to do it: There are web clients like Piped and Invidious, there is FreeTube for Desktop and on Android you can use LibreTube (client for Piped), NewPipe, NewPipe x SponsorBlock, it also has Return YouTube Dislike built in, or Grayjay. On iOS, you can use Yattee, just follow this guide to set it up, it should also work on the Apple TV if I’m not mistaken, or just add the Piped website to your homescreen. If you have a device that runs Android TV, you can use SmartTubeNext.
At that point just don’t use YouTube at all tbh
I would say air on the side of caution. I don’t use any google services outside of YouTube so me getting my account banned would cost me nothing. I personally wouldn’t be hurt at all if my account was banned.
If you live in google world and suddenly and irrevocably losing all your google accounts/access/data would be painful you should go with a VPN. Google is a private company where you have no rights to appeal.
Lastly if you do live in google world you should consider getting out. Don’t let mega companies run your life by fear nor allure.
Edit: Don’t use free VPNs. If you are not paying you are the product.
You don’t actually get banned, they just don’t let you watch youtube videos until you turn off your adblocker. You can even sign out and never see the ad block blocks because its tied to your account only.
True but we don’t know what google does to accounts that are bulk download videos from their platform for offline viewing. It’s definitely against the terms of service.
Jup, that is precisely what I meant and why I advocate for people to be cautious, if they use their Google account for more things than just YouTube.
I’m in the process of degoogeling my live. I’ve never used it much, but my phone and the apps that I’ve bought over the years are tied to my account. I still use the calendar and have been to lazy to switch. Google maps too is a big plus. I’ve already gotten rid of cloud storage, as I selfhost nextcloud.
I use airvpn, which is recommended now as mullvad got rid of port forwarding.
It’s rough in some spots but doable. If you are looking for search replacement I found that paying for Kagi was the only way to go. Unlike DuckDuckGo and Bing it does not suck. I’m convinced the reason is because they don’t try to sell you ads.
Kagi was somewhat expensive, if I recall. 10 bucks for unlimited searches put me off, as I don’t have a lot of money right now…
I don’t see them blocking accounts. What would it achieve? Their goal is to monetize you. By taking you out of the equation, they can’t monetize you anymore. You’ll probably keep doing what you were doing anonymously or with a new account, so blocking you won’t reduce costs either.
On the other hand, Google is collecting a lot of data. Maybe now they aren’t using it very effectively, but sooner or later they might find a key to make YouTube Premium a viable option even for someone like you. By using YouTube and other Google services, you are providing key fragments.
You’re probably correct on your assumption that Google also will lose something if they start banning accounts without warning.
You can also be certain that I, as well as other technically inclined persons, will try and get what they want through other means. A valid point.
Considering this, the only strategy I can see them using is some scare tactics. You will lose your Google account if you keep doing what you do, so give us money! This, however, will only work if they give people warnings, which they haven’t don’t yet.
Thank you for your input, much appreciated! I’ll stick to a VPN for now, as it doesn’t cost me anything. I’m just a cautious person.
WDYM “block your account” exactly?
You’re being paranoid. Google isn’t going to dick around blocking individuals.
I’m not sure how using a VPN would help in this situation if you are concerned about having your YouTube account banned? Would you being using that VPN while signed out and with cookies/site data cleared?
That would be the case, since tubearchivist requires no account and runs on my server, so no cookies as well.
They might do it, but there could also be a cost to Google if they started banning people’s accounts based on uncertain behavioural metrics. I expect it would at least be a while before they’d go that far. But a VPN can’t hurt.
I can’t see Google doing this.
I don’t think they would block your account, I think they would just block all youtube downloading methods at some point. I use mpv with yt-dlp to watch youtube and it sometimes breaks. I don’t think a vpn would help in any way.
I would assume most free vpns will be blocked period (either intentionally or for triggering the adblock ban).
And if you are going to pay for a VPN to watch youtube… youtube premium actually IS a really good deal for the creators. The specifics are obviously unknown, but most creators have come out that it is incredibly favorable and a lot better than what they get for ad revenue. And that automatically goes to whoever you watch rather than forcing you to decide if you REALLY need to throw a buck or two at the lady who actually showed how to install a sharkbite rather than glossing over it.
Aside from that: Like with anything, just question how much it would impact you to lose a google account… or all your google accounts. If you can eat that loss, yolo. If not, maybe avoid getting into an arms race with John Google.
It’s the other way round. I do pay for a VPN anyway and I donate via patron to support creators. A dollar here, a dollar there. It’s still cheaper than a subscription here in Germany and my favorite creators get a bigger payout. I’d be happy to pay for premium if it was something like 5 euros, but 12 a month.
If you already have the VPN then yeah, it is like anything else: What are the risks if you “get caught”
But I will just say: The “I pay for patreons” is largely bullshit. Don’t get me wrong, the big creators get paid. But the smaller creators, like the lady who ACTUALLY made a useful video that prevented your kitchen from flooding, get screwed over. Because I have no real problems throwing a few bucks a month at the Remap crew. I watch most of their streams and listen to most of their podcasts and it is awesome. But someone like Allen Pan who MIGHT have one video a month… it is REALLY hard to justify throwing enough to overcome the credit card fee at him. Even if I love his videos. And I have known quite a few people over the years who aren’t even “A Failed Mythbuster” and do it all for the couple bucks a month they get to “justify” the hundred hours or so it takes to make a funny video or to set up a camera to actually make a useful “how to” video.
I dunno. This is just one of those things where: If you wanna steal/“steal”, just do it. You do you. But when people talk about how they want to support creators… and then actively screw over creators? It is downright insulting.
How is the bullshit. I take 5 bucks every month and use those for patreon. I cycle through the channels so everybody gets a bit. I only pay the lowest tier for one month, then cancel again. Next month, a few different creators…
One view with ads is worth in the area of a cent, most likely less. Most channels upload once or twice a months. If the lowest paying tier is a dollar, they just made 50 times what they would get for ad revenue.
Again, are you paying every single creator you watch?
I keep referencing the helpful home improvement videos but… those are the kind of people who get the most screwed over. Because maybe you rotate between your primary channels. I do too. But maybe I am watching a climbing video and get confused by how that weird bar thing the caver is using actually works. So I search and find a genuinely useful video by some firefighter who was bored. I will probably never watch another video by that person, but I got a lot of value from that. Similarly, maybe I am fixing my dishwasher and can’t for the life of me figure out how to seat the sprayer and need to catch a similar one off video on that.
Ad revenue (or youtube premium money) is how those creators get paid and what encourages people to just do the one off videos. Otherwise, every appliance repair video is 90% an ad for the site that sells replacement parts and so forth.
And that also ignores the other elephant in the room that always comes up when these models are discussed. I have no problem sending William Osman a few bucks every couple months because he usually puts out one or two good videos a month. But what about Not an Engineer? New(-ish) channel. I’ve liked his videos a lot so far but he doesn’t really have a defined upload schedule and is only three videos in. So does he get to be part of the patreon rotation? And should he be less frequent than someone like Michael Reeves who posts one video a year but they are all bangers? Also, I don’t think Not an Engineer HAS a patreon yet so I guess he is just up shit creek for not doing sponsored segments or begging for money in the video about building a mill?
Again, I am not saying you need to throw money at them. I am just saying it is a real asshole move to pretend this is all about supporting creators while actively finding ways not to. Like, I don’t say that me downloading a movie that is only on netflix is about supporting the film industry. It is about me saying that I am not willing to pay 20 bucks a month on the off chance I want to watch The Night Comes For Us again.
I’m not paying everyone. Pretty much impossible. Here is my logic for what I’m doing on detail.
Netflix is 8 Euro a month here in Germany as a basic plan. I can share that with my girlfriend. They produce movies and then stream those to me. I use it quite often. I’m totally okay with what I’m getting for my money and pay happily.
Youtube is 12 Euro per month. I can’t share that plan with my girlfriend, as it would fuck up the algorithm. Youtube hosts videos but doesn’t produce content. I’m not happy with the value in getting.
Now I try to pay creators directly. Can I pay all of them? No. Can I be just? No. Is youtube just? Also no. Small creators get nothing. So I take my 5 euros and divide among creators. Next month a few others and so on. I can choose which ones, depending on how I feel about their content. I find a brilliant channel who helped me out with a project and who’s got patreon? Sure, why not? Last one here was DbTech, which I’m not subscribed to.
So the difference between income for content creators is Youtube Premium: 55 percent of 12 euros is 5,4 euros, My system: about 5 euros. The only difference being how the money is divided. I try to favor smaller channels.
In the end, I believe my system is superior, as gives me more control on where I spend my money. I only try to screw over Google, because they are greedy as fuck!
Didn’t read your whole post… But have you tried tubesync? It’s similar to tubearchvist if I recall.
I have not and I’ll look into it tomorrow. Thanks!
