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Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

ericdraken.com

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Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#31

Post by userbinator »

redrove wrote: post #18

>I propose heuristically scanning for query and path parameters of ad URLs with high entropy and using those as keys (fingerprints). > https://xn--rr6sn-uxa0n-t8gz-vg6i.googlevideo.com/initplayba... &orc=1&oeis=1&c=IOS&oss=1&oda=1&oad=5500&ovd=5500&oaad=11000&oavd=11000 &ocs=700&oputc=1&oses=1&ofpcc=1&osbr=1&osnz=1&msp=1&odeak=1&odepv=1 &osfc=1&id=58cc678216d6aaca&ip=121.35.98.26&initcwndbps=2125000 &mt=1640373902 Th…

Back when YouTube wasn't owned by Google, replacing /watch?v=... with /get_video?video_id=... in the URL would immediately give you the video file (in FLV format, of course.)

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#32

Post by kccqzy »

newaccount74 wrote: post #22
sgammon wrote: post #6

that's not really a "flaw" in protobuf; the protobuf is Working As Intended by decoding the field in a different place when you modify it. i am not sure how one could possibly characterize that as a "flaw," since protobuf is a field-numeric length-prefixed protocol in the first place. it makes a (reasonable) assumption that bytes won't be messed with over the wire, leaving integrity to the reader, so even if this _wa…

Yeah, that's some weird editorializing on behalf of the author. The "flaw" is mentioned only in the headline, the text just explains how the format works. It's not a flaw, just working as designed. There's also this bit: > Google makes it computationally expensive to decode, alter, and re-encode without the C++ source proto files Yeah, it's computationally expensive if you use unoptimized Python code to do it. If you…

Exactly. It's not exactly computationally expensive if you can do it at 2GB/s!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26931581

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#33

Post by redrove »

userbinator wrote: post #31
redrove wrote: post #18

>I propose heuristically scanning for query and path parameters of ad URLs with high entropy and using those as keys (fingerprints). > https://xn--rr6sn-uxa0n-t8gz-vg6i.googlevideo.com/initplayba... &orc=1&oeis=1&c=IOS&oss=1&oda=1&oad=5500&ovd=5500&oaad=11000&oavd=11000 &ocs=700&oputc=1&oses=1&ofpcc=1&osbr=1&osnz=1&msp=1&odeak=1&odepv=1 &osfc=1&id=58cc678216d6aaca&ip=121.35.98.26&initcwndbps=2125000 &mt=1640373902 Th…

Back when YouTube wasn't owned by Google, replacing /watch?v=... with /get_video?video_id=... in the URL would immediately give you the video file (in FLV format, of course.)

There was also a relatively brief time when YT was owned by google but ads were delivered from a separate (sub)domain so DNS adblocking would work wonders.

Those days are gone as the distinction between ads and malware becomes a technicality.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#34

Post by redrove »

thrdbndndn wrote: post #20
redrove wrote: post #18

>I propose heuristically scanning for query and path parameters of ad URLs with high entropy and using those as keys (fingerprints). > https://xn--rr6sn-uxa0n-t8gz-vg6i.googlevideo.com/initplayba... &orc=1&oeis=1&c=IOS&oss=1&oda=1&oad=5500&ovd=5500&oaad=11000&oavd=11000 &ocs=700&oputc=1&oses=1&ofpcc=1&osbr=1&osnz=1&msp=1&odeak=1&odepv=1 &osfc=1&id=58cc678216d6aaca&ip=121.35.98.26&initcwndbps=2125000 &mt=1640373902 Th…

>_exactly_ like malware But it's googlevideo.com. I know this is Google/YouTube's domain so the rest doesn't matter.

Which is besides the point and a minor nitpick at best.

The fact of the matter is these techniques are well established black hat ways of preventing the user from discovering what you're doing on their device.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#35

Post by dijit »

omnicognate wrote: post #29

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

I’m in the exact same mindset as you; youtube allows you to pay to rid yourself of ads (which is ironic because the more free you are with money the more attractive you must be to advertisers)- so I think they are better than most.

but if I must take an alternative position: the last time I used youtube without premium (which happens sometimes because its not so smooth to log in if its a temporary session); the number and length of the ads was absurd, multiple levels of unskippable ads, minutes long, with volume that is much higher than the content itself. Awful experience and I can see why people who don’t have the free money want to lower it a little.

Thats of course not including sponsored content which contains an ad inside the video itself- even YT premium users get those.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#36

Post by harshitaneja »

omnicognate wrote: post #29

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

Very well put. I have tried to argue the same point here and on reddit in past. The only real argument against I get is from the privacy perspective. That people tend to use alternative youtube clients or other such hacks to be able to consume ad free content anonymously and with the current state of google are not very keen on providing it with more information about them. Personally I am trying to degooglify my life including working my own open source alternatives for some services I don't find much other good alternatives for- google keep and google books. But my youtube usage pattern being the data shared with google is quite low on the priority list for me but reasonable minds can differ. On the other hand, if enough do start to pay for youtube premium then we would be able to much more fruitfully present our demands including for privacy when we are actual customers and not the product as in the current dynamics.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#37

Post by fsckboy »

omnicognate wrote: post #29

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

I too am happy pay for nice things, but I am never happy to pay a monopolist just on principle; so I don't.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#38

Post by FireInsight »

omnicognate wrote: post #29

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

I use Youtube through Piped (https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped) to preserve privacy, block ads, and prevent getting sucked in by the algorithm.

The only part of Youtube that I find valuable is the content. Not the UI, not the comments, algorithm. Free content hosting is nice, but it's not the only platform hosting videos for free.

If I wanted to pay for a streaming service, it'd be Nebula (https://nebula.tv/), because I know it benefits creators.

But I'm never turning off the adblocker, thank you.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#39

Post by userbinator »

omnicognate wrote: post #29

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

I dislike the attitude of those who reject ads but also refuse to pay.

How is this any different from changing the channel, leaving the room, or just hitting the mute button and closing your eyes in the scenario of "regular" TV when adverts or any other content you don't want to see appears? Compelled consumption should be illegal.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#40

Post by cannedbeets »

omnicognate wrote: post #29

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

There are so many reasons to block ads. Aesthetics alone. Protecting your valuable time. Consenting to watching an ad is not the same as consenting to your entire life being tracked and monitored.

But the most important issue is that as long as malware can spread through ads (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvertising), everyone should be blocking all ads.

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