Regarding YouTube ads on iPad: App called ‘Vinegar - Tube Cleaner’. Incredible. Best few bucks I’ve ever spent. It replaces the native YouTube player with the standard iOS video player which means you can also do system-wide picture-in-picture from the YouTube website. And I’ve not seen a YouTube ad in videos since I installed the extension.

> It seems there is no solution for this?

Get YouTube Premium?

I would pay for many things on the internet if there was something like digital cash.

But the way it is, every time I pay for something, the mega corporations can tie my identity to everything I do. I am not ok with that. So the barrier to pay for something is very high.

Depending on your level of paranoia, one of these might work.

1. Buy a prepaid reloadable credit/debit card. In the US you can do this at major supermarkets, Walmart, and I think many convenience stores. You can load this by transferring funds from your normal bank account.

Your bank can tie your identity to that, but they don't know what you are using the prepaid card for. The prepaid card company knows what you are using it for but doesn't know who you are. Same with whoever you buy things from with it.

2. Buy a prepaid credit/debit card using cash.

3. Buy a prepaid reloadable credit/debit card using cash. Use this for your internet purchases. To reload it, buy prepaid non-reloadable debit cards using cash and use them to reload the reloadable card. (I'm not sure you can use one card to load another, though. Using credit cards to load prepaid cards is usually forbidden I believe, but I couldn't find anything on using debit cards to do so).

I'm in Europe. You cannot buy+use credit/debit cards without going through an identification process here.

You are watching YouTube. They have your IP, and can tie your identity using that.

Who? And how would they do that?

Unless you are very careful google knows exactly who you are even with multiple layers of ad blockers and VPN. It's built into their browsers and services. They are the best in the world at it barring state agents like FSB and CIA.

I recently discovered a slight mitigation on the iPad re Youtube ads:

If you open a Youtube URL and the preview image looks like it's not the actual video but an ad -- wait. Wait for approximately the length of the ad, and the preview will switch to the actual video's preview (or the next ad, in which case, wait again) and you can then play the video.

(I think this is probably not intended behavior and I hope I'm not getting this "fixed" by posting this here :/)

/edit: I do this is on "Firefox" for iOS, though it probably shouldn't matter.

On iOS, there is a free adguard app that besides general filters for safari (and whole os) let you block youtube ads by integrating into share button(“view with adguard”), I think they put js in there. On android, situation is dare. You have to use dns/vpn blocking or firefox with uorigin and still apps that use webpart can do whatever they want. But of course on android you can get hacked youtube app without ads.

Use Yattee, it blocks ads and improves your privacy.

I have a developer account and just resign their ipas to install it. Looks like you could install it via TestFlight as well.

https://github.com/yattee/yattee

This is awesome! Had no clue this existed.

No but if you turn on strict mode, it gets you 95% there in firefox and brave.

Brave has built in adblocking and I think Firefox Focus does as well. No ads on YouTube.

On Android you can install Firefox and then uBlock Origin as an add-on.