Inside the ‘arms race’ between YouTube and ad blockers / Against all odds, open source hackers keep outfoxing one of the wealthiest companies.::YouTube’s dramatic content gatekeeping decisions of late have a long history behind them, and there’s an equally long history of these defenses being bypassed.

  • clara@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    81
    ·
    11 months ago

    the “open source hackers” are always going to win this one, for a simple reason. if the data of the youtube video is handed to a user at any point, then the information it contains can be scrubbed and cleaned of ads. no exceptions.

    if google somehow solves all ad-blocking techniques within browser, then new plugins will be developed on the operating system side to put a black square of pixels and selectively mute audio over the advert each time. if they solve that too? then people will hack the display signal going out at the graphics card level so that it is cleaned before it hits the monitor. if they beat that using some stupid encryption trick? well, then people will develop usb plugin tools that physically plug into the monitors at the display end, that artificially add the black boxes and audio mutes at the monitor display side.

    if they beat that? someone, someone will jerry rig a literal black square of paper on some servos and wires, and physical audio switch to do the same thing, an actual, physical advert blocker. i’m sure once someone works that out, a mass produced version would be quite popular as a monitor attachment (in a timeline that gets so fucked that we would need this).

    if that doesn’t work? like, google starts coding malware to seek and destroy physical adblockers? then close your eyes and mute your headphones for 30 seconds, lol. the only way google is solving that one is with hitsquads and armed drones to make viewers RESUME VIEWING

    as long as a youtube video is available to access without restriction, then google cannot dictate how the consumer experiences that video. google cannot win this.

    • badbytes@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      11 months ago

      It’s how we did it with MythTV and over the air or cable tv. The algorithms will just save a file in post, that has the ads removed. And that was 15yrs ago.

      • viperex@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        I don’t see how we escape ads if YouTube splits the video in two and ads play on a third of the screen alongside the video. Or in a chiron

      • clara@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        42
        ·
        11 months ago

        the current solution for that would be similar to the current “sponsor block” plugins, here’s an example

        crowdsourced start and endpoints for embedded sponsorships

        something like this tool, but for future embedded google adverts

        • tiller@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Without talking about the resources it would require, youtube could totally only serve the ad until it has been “watched”. And no amount of sponsor block or similar software would help. These software only work because youtube allow you to navigate the video. If they decide that you have to fully download a 30s ad video, and that you can’t ask for the video for the first 30s, then you wouldn’t be able to do anything (or at the very max, just hide the ad and wait 30s on a blank screen).

          • affiliate@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            36
            ·
            11 months ago

            then you wouldn’t be able to do anything (or at the very max, just hide the ad and wait 30s on a blank screen

            i would choose the blank screen over watching an ad, every single time

            • oatscoop@midwest.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              12
              ·
              11 months ago

              Or the adblock could buffer the video and play it on a delay ad free. People will be fine with doing something else for a minute.

              Better yet, have it done in the background – particularly for new videos on channels you’re subscribed to.

            • r3df0x ✡️✝☪️@7.62x54r.ru
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              11 months ago

              People could do that out of protest, and upload videos as proof of them doing it. Advertisers would start pulling out if they think they’re being ripped off like that.

              Eventually at some point, the nuclear option would be if the government decided that sending back false information saying an ad had been viewed is computer fraud.

              • daltotron@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                11 months ago

                I don’t think the relative amount of people that would do that would be high enough to really end up mattering, and it’s not like, in that circumstance, advertisers can tell whether or not people are actually watching their ads anyways, which has always been the most dubious part of ads. And, is the biggest advantage of the internet and youtube, is that you can tell, you’re allowed access to those metrics. I don’t see a reality where youtube just goes to basically like, shittier cable advertising, forcing everyone to watch all the ads all the time, and that becomes somehow attractive to advertisers. I think, if that were the case, advertisers would probably pull out just on that basis and go where they know exactly what content they’re putting their ads in front of, which has always been the disadvantage of youtube.

          • Ace! _SL/S@ani.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            11 months ago

            Even if they did that it’s not impossible to find some exploits. No software is free of bugs which can be exploited, especially networked ones which are often finicky because they have many systems in place to pretend flawless execution. Just look at the TCP protocol, it’s dropping packets left and right but users usually don’t notice because they get spammed till one gets through

              • Corgana@startrek.website
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                11 months ago

                Sure but my point was if there’s a practical way to do what the guy above me was proposing, then I would assume those sketchy ass sites would employ the same tactics. Not a programmer though.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        All other hope forlorn, there’s still ML to recognize and cut out ads.

        Or one can download the same video with as many as possible metrics different, so that ads would be different, and then compare the two videos. Ugh.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      This type of war happened 15 years ago with Hulu vs Xbox. Hulu won because despite there always being an exploit it was always several days before a work around was uploaded. Eventually it was Hulu on xbmc for 1 day, then 3 days no Hulu on and on until everyone gave up.