Does usage of third party youtube apps necessitate a VPN in the near future? (feddit.de)

submitted 1 year ago by Pete90@feddit.de to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Greetings y'all. I've been using ways to circumvent YouTube ads for years now. I'd much rather donate to creators directly instead of using Google as a middle man, needing YouTube Premium. If even pay for premium for just a add free version, if the price wouldn't be so outrageous. I've So far used adblockers, Vanced and then Revanced.

Since the recent developments in this matter, I've setup Tubearchivist, a self hosted solution to download YouTube videos for later consumption. It mostly works great, with a few minor things that bother me but I highly recommend it. ReVanced also still works, but nobody knows for how long.

The question now is, if I should use a VPN to obscure my identity to Google. I don't know if I'm being paranoid here but I wouldn't put it past Google to block my account, if they see YouTube traffic for my IP address and no served ads. Revanced even uses my main Google account, so not that far fetched.

So far, or at least to my knowledge, Google has never done this but I think they just might in the future. So I'm planning on putting tubearchivist behind a VPN via gluetun.

What do you think? I'm eager to hear your opinions on this.

I can also add my docker compose, if there's interest and when I'm back on my PC.

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[-] netchami@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

Don't. Don't install Google spyware on your phone and don't give this garbage company even a fraction of a cent. Also, stop pretending that it's impossible to block ads on YouTube, there are many ways to do it: There are web clients like Piped and Invidious, there is FreeTube for Desktop and on Android you can use LibreTube (client for Piped), NewPipe, NewPipe x SponsorBlock, it also has Return YouTube Dislike built in, or Grayjay. On iOS, you can use Yattee, just follow this guide to set it up, it should also work on the Apple TV if I'm not mistaken, or just add the Piped website to your homescreen. If you have a device that runs Android TV, you can use SmartTubeNext.