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YouTube adds new hurdles for ad blockers, and there's currently no way around it
(www.androidauthority.com)
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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you can kind of ungoogle youtube by using invidious https://invidious.io/
I just use it without account and subscribe to my favorite channels using external RSS feed reader. This way I still keep track of my fav content and doing it entirely outside of Google. If they track me as guest, I really don't care that much.
Ironically, YouTube is one case that's much better with personalized recommendations. I even open links from social media in incognito tabs so as to not pollute my recommendations accidentally.
Any time I happen to open Youtube's main page in an incognito tab, it's filled with complete trash that's offered to my region by default. It's not even my usual snobbery talking — the content is like wall-to-wall Jerry Springer Show.
the hardest thing to stop them tracking you is digital fingerprinting. they don't need you to sign in, they have a profile with dozens of data points unique to your hardware/browser, unless you've got things installs specifically to prevent fingerprinting
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
That site is brutal. No matter what I do or what browser setup I use, it always says that I have a unique fingerprint
i think the message is there's no such thing as 100% private/anonymous--there'll always be something giving you up
Why does firefox allow random people to farm all that information? That's the real problem here.
it's not just firefox. pretty sure that's just how the web works. i use librewolf with privacy badger, canvas blocker, and ublock, but it's still built around firefox. i get a "unique fingerprint" notification, but also "you have strong tracking protection"