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FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

freetubeapp.io

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Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#181

Post by mattivc »

I have had a love-hate relationship with YouTube for a long time. On the one hand, many channels put out great content that I want to watch. But the recommended videos feature is exceptional at hooking into my reptilian brain and getting me to waste a lot of time on junk that I later regret as a big waste of time.

I looked into a lot of alternative clients, including FreeTube, in an attempt to solve this. I use Tube Archivist[1], an open-source project that allows you to subscribe to and auto-download YouTube channels and playlists or download individual videos and watch them in a minimal web interface. It works fine on iOS as long as you set it up to download in an iOS-compatible format. I currently have it running in a Docker container on my Synology NAS.

[1] https://www.tubearchivist.com/

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#183

Post by lrvick »

judge2020 wrote: post #88
lrvick wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

But you cannot opt out of Google having a list of every video you watch and when/where you watch from tied to your credit card details and browser.

Google will use this data to sort feeds and recommendations in a way that helps meet the behavior modification goals of their partners.

When creators upload to platforms that let me anonymously pay them with money, I will happily do so. LBRY has proven this can be done.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#184

Post by lrvick »

jsnell wrote: post #109
lrvick wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If I could pay creators directly and anonymously with only money and not my data and viewing habits and agreeing to let random third parties try to manipulate me, I would.

For now the only creators I can support with privacy are on LBRY.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#185

Post by WickyNilliams »

lakomen wrote: post #85

We need one to replace vanced on Android and Android TV. We have ad blockers for browsers on the desktop.

Newpipe has been my go to for years. Set it as default YouTube client in android and away you go. Breaks occasionally but devs are quick to fix (usually a day or two)

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#186

Post by Tozen »

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…

> So the issue is that it has tons of extra data than they need because it * doesn’t make their recommendation any better. ...YouTube is incredibly simplistic in its recommendations. I find it very hard to believe that they couldn’t achieve the same quality with much less info on me.

An example of YouTube insanity is their video quality settings. There is no clear manual setting (which should be labeled as such), to keep them at only a specific video resolution at all times (until adjusted by the user). Instead, users have to constantly battle with YouTube auto and resizing, to include when going to and from full screen, or make their own custom workaround.

> For instance, my IP changes when I travel... YouTube insists in showing me local ads in different languages when I’m in foreign countries...

The point is not the convenience of the user, but rather maximum data extraction from users and selling that data to 3rd parties (including governments). This is why users should not blink in finding workarounds for what Google is doing. Users should have no more concern or loyalty to Google, as they have for them, which is zero outside of how much money they can make.

The possibilities of having a truly open-source YouTube client is that users can configure their settings to exactly as they wish, without tracking and massive privacy violations.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#187

Post by _abox »

Waterluvian wrote: post #27
ramonezy wrote: post #25

I think as developers we have to be careful that we don't overstep logical boundaries. Youtube provides a free service that hosts immense volumes of video and creates an ecosystem allowing creators to earn a living. It's selfish to use the services of YouTube while removing their main source of revenue. If you have a problem with YouTube's tracking, simply don't use it

This is how I feel about all the bold circumvention of paywalls. It’s a legally fuzzy area in some cases, but to me at least, it is basically people saying, “here, let me help you steal!”

> This is how I feel about all the bold circumvention of paywalls. It’s a legally fuzzy area in some cases, but to me at least, it is basically people saying, “here, let me help you steal!”

The problem exists because these companies want to have their cake and eat it. They want people to pay for content yet they want it to be freely available to content spiders and for it to be spread on linking sites such as this one. It's like the old wallet joke: Get someone to crouch down to pick it up and then you yank it away.

If I see a link here from e.g. the washington post, I might read it, but I will never sign up for a monthly subscription. I don't even live in America so most of their content won't interest me. So a paywall in that case is only annoying. Bypassing it will not cost them a subscription which I'd never get anyway.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#188

Post by [deleted] »

dmitriid wrote: post #138
mhss wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Do you have any good sources about this? For example, documents in Google court cases: https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1592380225064960002 and https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1592551401875734528 and https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21403202/google-engineers... and possibly others

[deleted]

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#189

Post by GekkePrutser »

schmichael wrote: post #108
Brian_K_White wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sponsorblock is great, it really makes some videos watchable.

Though in general if there is a lot of sponsorship in videos it usually means the content itself is also really mediocre and spammy so I don't tend to watch those anyway. The people who really have a lot of technical knowledge don't monetise it very much because they don't have to. Being an expert in their field already nets them more than enough money.

I watch very little youtube anyway, as I dislike the video format and prefer written content. But when I do need to because what I'm looking for isn't available elsewhere, sponsorblock is a great help.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#190

Post by Kairinz »

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…

This is exactly the issue with YouTube's current state, even if you don't spend a lot of time on it :) Well said!
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