Blocking AdBlock-Detection

[lavanyadeepak]

AdBlocker and Tracker Blocking is a surestop value-add for these day browsers. However a few websites are forcing users to turn off these options to resume with the information display. I guess some of the AdBlock scripts have already started recognizing and working on to address these detection scripts.

Would like to request if Vivaldi can implement the same on their AdBlock algorithm too.

[Catweazle]

@lavanyadeepak, you can do it yourself, adding the needed filter to the Vivaldi trackerblocker. Open the Vivaldi settings page > Privacy and Security, in the adblocker settings click in "Sources" and in "+" and paste in the pop up window the filterlist you want.
eg
https://github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer/blob/master/anti-adblock-killer-filters.txt
You may find more here
You can add the filters you want, but you must be somewhat careful, since adding too many filters can cause some pages to stop working or not display correctly.

[sirinath]

Can this be automatically added and updated in Vivaldi.

[sirinath]

Immediate issue is:

[Catweazle]

@sbernecchia, well, anyway there are several others in the page with the filterlists.

[Hadden89]

https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/699562 <- anti adblockers lists

[Catweazle]

@Hadden89, i use the first in the Vivaldi adblocker, works fine, but not in YT. This morning it even came with a new Pop-up, saying that YT will be blocked after 3 Videos with the adblocker on.
Removing the adblocker YT falls back into the old habit of interrupting videos with ads, unskippable for 5 seconds.
This is getting unsustainable, I can tolerate ads appearing on the page and even at the beginning of a video, but in the middle of the video it is already a reason for me to tell them to go to hell.

[Pathduck]

@Catweazle Only one option - stop using YouTube.

YT/Google are perfectly within their right to show ads to make revenue and to start blocking users who use adblockers. They are not a public service, nor is it a basic human right to access YouTube.

They can even just ban users who use blockers, three strikes and you're out. Could be devastating for a user if their Google account was terminated for breach of TOS though, not sure if they'll do that.

That said, I haven't seen any such warnings here using uBlock with the default lists. But of course, they might just not have rolled out these anti-adblock warnings to all users/countries yet.

[Catweazle]

@Pathduck, I agree that YT uses ads to finance itself, but it is one thing to use ads on the page and even at the beginning of a video, it would also support, as they do even on TV, to put a banner at the bottom of the video. What drives me to use an adblocker is when they start crushing a concert with even advertorials. This is where my tolerance ends definitively.

Yes, of course I use alternatives, for example front-ends like Piped, CloudTube and others, but these are also increasingly not usable in the majority of videos, they simply do not appear or do not play, FreeTube has already completely stopped to work, apparently Google has also started to turn off the tap.

At the moment I am focusing on sites like Odysee and others, but there the offer is quite limited regarding content.
A monopoly definitely leads to abuse.

[Hadden89]

@Catweazle Might store this info in cookies/local storage but can't test yet (in italy doesn't happen yet).
Probably always cleaning up them will reset the counter.

[Catweazle]

@Hadden89, I'm going to try with selective blocks in Site Bleacher and with other filters, if not, goodbye YT, because this abuse hurts the creators more than it will benefit them.
In Lemmy you already see a bot suggesting to use Piped or others, when you post YT videos, which is not well regarded there.

[barbudo2005]

@Catweazle

I use uBO and I don't see ads in YT.

Could you post links where you see ads.

[Catweazle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00IboJXPO6g with the adblocker desactivated, activating the adblocker i see that pop-up.

With uBO it works at the moment, that means that the cause is the Vivaldi blocker. I'll test it with different filters.

[barbudo2005]

@Catweazle Said:

I'll test it with different filters.

I wonder what would happen if in the built-in adblocker you add all the filter lists that come by default in uBO?

[Catweazle]

@barbudo2005, obviously you will tear all the pages, you have to find a balance. At the moment there are no problems with uBO, but with Vivaldi's blocker with the default filters YT gets upset. Obviously the Vivaldi blocker lacks the functionalities of uBO, therefore I am going to continue using uBO, leaving the Vivaldi blocker, at least until it improves its functionalities in the future.

[Catweazle]

The difference in uBO is seen by opening the log, there you can see how uBO goes at all speeds blocking Google.video's continuous attempts to write a log for the entire duration of the video. This with Vivaldi with static filters will not work.

[wintercoast]

@Catweazle said in Blocking AdBlock-Detection:

FreeTube has already completely stopped to work

I've just started using this as of yesterday. It's been working for me so far.

Btw, I think I mentioned it elsewhere but there is a Watch on LBRY extension that allows you to watch on desktop LBRY or Odysee if the current video is available there. You can set it to auto-switch or you can do it manually via an inline button.

There's another extension called TubeShift that detects both Odysee and BitChute as alternative locations and can also auto-switch if desired.