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FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

freetubeapp.io

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Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#101

Post by Brian_K_White »

FeistySkink wrote: post #98
Brian_K_White wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen that kind of thing a few different places and I just plain decline to believe that it isn't done with knowledge. Active items that are already clickable that change location as a page loads drive me nuts, but these particularly convenient examples add another dimension to that.

My banking app does that when doing a transfer, i.e new field appear depending on a receiver. It catches me off-guard every single time. Infuriating.

hah! 2 seconds later this is in my feed

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33765399

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#103

Post by TylerE »

n4bz0r wrote: post #53

People here talking about how they don't want YouTube to make a profile of their preferences, and here I am, wishing YouTube had a better profile of my preferences. Lately, there is almost no new videos in my recommendation feed. It's mostly either the things I've already watched or new videos from the channels I'm already subscribed to. It really feels like I've exhausted the internet at some point. This can't possi…

I’ve had a similar experience, and it’s rather recent.. last month or so.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#104

Post by cuttysnark »

judge2020 wrote: post #89
lrvick wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can route all traffic through community invidious instances so Google can not even track what content is consumed by your IP. It also automatically skips all ads, even sponsor segments in videos. You also avoid needing to have a Google account to keep up with subscriptions, and you avoid content suppression as the sponsor-prioritized advertiser-friendly algorithms are turned off.

> so Google can not even track what content is consumed by your IP. "Google uses IPs to track you" has been theorized since 2010 or maybe even before, but I've never seen any study or evidence that it actually does so. So, so much of the internet is built on NAT, shared IP space, and short-lived IP addresses that it really doesn't seem like there is any ROI in having engineers keep their IP correlation tech in servic…

IP addresses are frequently kept and stored to show users their active sessions. Are you sincerely doubting that a company like Google doesn't or can't use this information in other ways that support their core business? You don't have to call it "tracking", but I can't think of a better name.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#105

Post by mhss »

MR4D wrote: post #59
n4bz0r wrote: post #53

People here talking about how they don't want YouTube to make a profile of their preferences, and here I am, wishing YouTube had a better profile of my preferences. Lately, there is almost no new videos in my recommendation feed. It's mostly either the things I've already watched or new videos from the channels I'm already subscribed to. It really feels like I've exhausted the internet at some point. This can't possi…

I think you might not be understanding the context of the argument. Google has tons of information on you - way more than it needs, and yet it still doesn’t get recommendations as good as we expect (as you rightly point out). So the issue is that it has tons of extra data than they need because it * doesn’t make their recommendation any better.* Gathering data for the sake of gathering data in todays world of informa…

> Google has tons of information on you

Do you have any good sources about this? what do we know for sure Google know and track about us? I work for Google now, but speak for myself here. In my time here (not much, less than a year still) I've seen a huge focus on privacy and not storing user data. Then again, I don't work on ads. However, even before working at Google I was surprised that given my liberal sharing of information on the internet, ad targeting did not seem particularly more informed for me than "middle aged male living in Canada" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#107

Post by joecool1029 »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #99
judge2020 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which includes them tracking my behavior and using it to sell changes in my behavior as a service to the highest bidder. You can use Ad Block while using YT Premium.

no adblock blocks in-content ads, and if we are talking technicalities and theory anyway, surely it violates the tos. I'm not sure what this suggestion even meant to accomplish now that I think about it.

>no adblock blocks in-content ads

Ever heard of SponsorBlock?

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#108

Post by schmichael »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #96
schmichael wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can pay for ad free YouTube by paying for YouTube Premium. No annoying micropayments. All the content with none of the ads. It does not satisfy your anonymous requirement but very little does. Most content creators appreciate (directly or indirectly) the features a non anonymous platform provides.

Incorrect. I have premium and I still get all kinds of ads, in the content itself, and of course premium means a login which means not anonymous and absolutely "personalized" content.

If the content itself includes paid promotion then (a) it’s not individualized, and (b) the platform you view it on (YouTube, FreeTube, Blu-ray, or VHS) doesn’t matter… …so I don’t think paid promotions from the content creators themselves are relevant to the discussion? Your only option is manually skipping the promotional content which is usually really trivial to do.

I have YouTube Premium and don’t see any ads by Google/YouTube. I’m not a heavy YouTube viewer though so it’s possible I’m missing something.

Edit: just discovered sponsorblock and wooow am I impressed at the lengths some folks will go to skip ads. TIL

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#109

Post by jsnell »

lrvick wrote: post #74
schmichael wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can pay for ad free YouTube by paying for YouTube Premium. No annoying micropayments. All the content with none of the ads. It does not satisfy your anonymous requirement but very little does. Most content creators appreciate (directly or indirectly) the features a non anonymous platform provides.

YouTube premium requires I have a Google account, and consent to Google ToS which includes them tracking my behavior and using it to sell changes in my behavior as a service to the highest bidder. Youtube Premium is not acceptable. I can use cash to buy a book or a movie at a store and not have to reveal anything about myself in the process. No targeting, no having my personal data and behavior collected in centraliz…

You can opt out of ad personalization: https://myadcenter.google.com/

But I get it, why pay for the content or the service when you can just take it for free?

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