[dead]
SmartTube Compromised
121–130 of 155 posts
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#122I really hope Google doesn't pick this out (and similar events) as further justification for getting rid of APK-based installation.
Blocking file-based installations was never planned. It's fake news and always has been. It's all about requiring code signing for all code so that malware-spreading authors can be easily blocked by adding their signing key fingerprint to the blocklist. It doesn't matter whether the app is installed via Play Store, Huawei's or Samsung's store etc., or from APK.
"Malware spreading authors" or "ToS violating authors" or "authors of piracy apps"?
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#123What can malware in an apk do?
Most likely load arbitrary binary code and execute it. Which also makes it really hard to figure out what it actually did.
Among the options of what could be pushed:
- proxyware, turning your network into a residential proxy that can then be sold to anyone willing to pay for them to commit crimes, send spam, scrape, ... with your IP [I believe this is the primary suspect here]
- other standard botnet crap like DDoS bots
- exploits that try to break out of the sandbox to establish persistence, steal other data, or steal your Google account token
- code that steals all data/tokens that the app itself has access to
- adware that shows ad notifications etc.
- ransomware that tries to prevent you from leaving the app (of course this works best if they get a sandbox escape first, but I'm sure you can get pretty close with just aggressive creative use of existing APIs)
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#124I really hope Google doesn't pick this out (and similar events) as further justification for getting rid of APK-based installation.
Blocking file-based installations was never planned. It's fake news and always has been. It's all about requiring code signing for all code so that malware-spreading authors can be easily blocked by adding their signing key fingerprint to the blocklist. It doesn't matter whether the app is installed via Play Store, Huawei's or Samsung's store etc., or from APK.
What an absolute boatload of lies.
I am currently in process of "verifying" my identity with Android Developer console.
In addition to proof of identity (e.g. passport/driver license) Google is demanding a proof of address, government registration, this month's rental agreement, foreign passport... The process is stuck in limbo because months-old documents are deemed "outdated", and I am constantly threatened that my verification request (!) will be denied because of "exceeding allowed number of attempts" (!!)
It shares the same principle as silent Discord account bans and other "verification" harassment schemes, such as Upwork account verification. The excess developers — Google's potential competitors — need to be banished from platform as quickly and cheaply as possible, so that Google can peddle their own spyware unimpeded.
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#125It's kind of shocking to me that so many people would download an app like this and sign in using their actual YouTube account.
Its such a good client. With the YT Roku app, if you change playback speed, quality will drop to 720p or lower. SmartTube lets me watch at full 1080p with 1.5x speed.
No ads is of course a big plus too.
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is free to block me / my IP / ban my account.
In high school I knew a kid who would go around looting loose change from unlocked cars. He'd pull the driver side door open like it was his car, hop in, loot the center console, then hop out like nothing happened. He wouldn't take valuables (as far as I knew), just change, so maybe a few bucks per car. His rationale? "Nobody will cry over a few missing quarters and they are free to lock their doors anyway."
Blocking ads is the same as stealing.
You are very intelligent.
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
essentially every YouTuber I've watched who discussed their financials said that their sponsorships brought in several times more money than all forms of YouTube money. which is a very niche slice, and I have no idea how representative it is in aggregate. but sponsorships happen because they pay well enough to annoy every viewer, not just ones that aren't using the better-paying Premium - they generally are not cheap…
Linus Tech Tips disclosed their finances: https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/1jjplow/ltt_... - and their sponsorships are less than the YT ads income. If you look at Premium, it's about 100x more lucrative than regular views. So I'm pretty sure I'm providing more money to creators than the skipped ads.
To be clear: I completely believe that Premium is a major source for many people. 100%. I just haven't seen many examples of it, outside tubers that have zero sponsorships (because they're small and/or not doing the low-value slightly-shady ones that get spammed everywhere). I'm thrilled that Premium seems to pay relatively well, it's better for everyone to move away from ads where possible.
LTT though is a rather significant outlier in terms of subscribers (16.6 million right now). For truly large channels it's reasonable for the equation to be different.
And the equation for them really is different. They're a company with ~100 employees¹ and YouTube and video sponsorships came out to just 11.6% (ads AND premium) and 9.2% respectively of their multi-person company income. People claiming "SponsorBlock steals from creators" aren't talking about LTT, they're talking about smaller creators for whom YouTube stuff is a majority of their income.
Plus, like. Ads+premium lumped into one. It wouldn't surprise me if premium was lower than sponsorships.
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#128It's kind of shocking to me that so many people would download an app like this and sign in using their actual YouTube account.
It has a far better user interface than the official YT interface. And that interface can be heavily customized to your exact preferences. My wife has YT Premium, and we find ourselves watching YT in SmartTube just because the interface is so much better.
Same here, we also both have YT Premium and use SmartTube. Our dislike of "Shorts" pushed everywhere in the YT app is what got us to switch to SmartTube. We watch Youtube on our 65" TV via Chromecast, so shorts are just really a crap experience and we do not want to see them at all. SmartTube lets us eliminate them, as well as all the other awesome UI customization makes it a far superior experience.
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
In high school I knew a kid who would go around looting loose change from unlocked cars. He'd pull the driver side door open like it was his car, hop in, loot the center console, then hop out like nothing happened. He wouldn't take valuables (as far as I knew), just change, so maybe a few bucks per car. His rationale? "Nobody will cry over a few missing quarters and they are free to lock their doors anyway."
Blocking ads is the same as stealing. You are very intelligent.
The reason it's not stealing is because the cost to the serve content is tiny (spare change) and the sites don't stop you from viewing it with ad-blocker (unlocked doors).
Re: SmartTube Compromised
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Linus Tech Tips disclosed their finances: https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/1jjplow/ltt_... - and their sponsorships are less than the YT ads income. If you look at Premium, it's about 100x more lucrative than regular views. So I'm pretty sure I'm providing more money to creators than the skipped ads.
To be clear: I completely believe that Premium is a major source for many people. 100%. I just haven't seen many examples of it, outside tubers that have zero sponsorships (because they're small and/or not doing the low-value slightly-shady ones that get spammed everywhere). I'm thrilled that Premium seems to pay relatively well, it's better for everyone to move away from ads where possible. LTT though is a rather si…
I know a couple of other creators, and a YT Premium view for them is about 10x more lucrative than sponsorship+ads.
It completely changes if we're talking about non-Premium views.