News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by red_admiral on Thursday May 11, 2023 @04:50AM (#35899530)
Ad-blocking also gives you similar if not more extra security to anti-virus software, with fewer downsides (faster not slower). I'm afraid the ad ecosystem is so big that occasionally, threats slip through.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by jamiequint on Thursday May 11, 2023 @05:51AM (#35899943)
This may be true on random-site-X on the internet, but is not true on sites like YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, etc that run their own first-party ad platforms.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by martin_a on Thursday May 11, 2023 @06:03AM (#35900046)
YouTubes "first-party ad platform" is delivering some of the worst ads on the whole internet.

It's not only the big-boobed characters promoting mobile games, there are (video) ads for pyramid and other "get rich quick" schemes, conspiracy theories (government will force everyone to become transgender!) and whatnot.

They don't give just the tiniest bit of a shit for all of this, as long as they are earning money with it.

Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by worrycue on Thursday May 11, 2023 @06:40AM (#35900293)
I have heard of their “system”, they auction ad space out in real time with a bunch a descriptors for the ad buyers who then bid for the space. Google really doesn’t give a crap who wins it or if it matches your interests/needs. Advertisers are free to advertise to anyone as long as they win the bid.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by jamiequint on Friday May 12, 2023 @09:53AM (#35916332)
Your security is not affected by you seeing bad ads.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by MrFoof on Thursday May 11, 2023 @09:34AM (#35901795)
>…there are (video) ads for pyramid and other "get rich quick" schemes…

Oh my dog. Before I set up Invidious to ensure my experience on iPad and such could be ad free, the one that really shocked me is one of the two ads that would show up mid-roll for a creator I watched regularly was SIXTY SIX MINUTES in length. Yes, an hour and six minutes! I can’t imagine what that must cost, but clearly whatever they were selling must cover the costs of a 66-minute ad well enough!

Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by detuur on Thursday May 11, 2023 @10:46AM (#35902915)
I've been wondering what the purpose of those super-long ads is for some time, but now it suddenly occurred to me: they're for unattended youtube players.

Plenty of shops, waiting rooms, lounges, bars, etc have a TV which is simply tuned to a youtube playlist. Whoever is issuing those ads is counting on that the operators of those TV's for whatever reason (either because they don't care, don't notice, or don't have access to the controls) don't skip them.

Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by Brusco_RF on Thursday May 11, 2023 @05:17PM (#35908498)
Not entirely. I sat through a 12 minute ad once. We could have skipped it after 5 seconds. But it was a charming video of a lady cooking a hamburger and I rather enjoyed watching it. I wish more ads were like that
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by askiiart on Friday May 12, 2023 @08:10PM (#35924074)
Any chance you have the link to that ad?
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by Brusco_RF on Monday May 15, 2023 @03:13PM (#35953188)
I do not! It was years ago. And unfortunately there is no tracking of ads, I wanted a link to that video too. You can't even back up and re-watch an ad!
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by heavyset_go on Friday May 12, 2023 @11:17PM (#35925132)
I've noticed that some people like to play YouTube videos to go to sleep, and YouTube will play those long ads at night.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by vonseel on Thursday May 11, 2023 @12:20PM (#35904395)
I've seen it said that newsfeeds/ads/etc. feed you what they think you will engage with, so you may want to wonder why you're seeing that type of content. I've never seen anything of the sort on any large tech platform, and I'm probably in an appropriate demographic to be recommended that stuff.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by Zak on Thursday May 11, 2023 @08:49PM (#35910432)
Those algorithms tend to be "people who liked X also liked Y", which is very prone to false positives for people who don't fit conventional stereotypes.

For example, someone who watches the Forgotten Weapons channel on Youtube might get recommended far-right conspiracy videos, because people who like guns often like far-right politics. They might also get recommended Scott Manley and Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles because all three have deep dives into interesting historical technology.

Ideally, there would be more manual knobs for communicating one's preferences about such things to recommendation algorithms.

Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by askiiart on Friday May 12, 2023 @08:13PM (#35924096)
Relatedly, easily the highest item on my wishlist for YouTube features is algorithm customizability. Half the time I'm recommended the same 5 channels, while the other half I'm recommended amazing videos from fantastic smaller YouTube channels.

Being able to at least switch between some presets for the algorithm would be amazing.

Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by martin_a on Friday May 12, 2023 @03:27AM (#35913081)
I think it's more the lack of other analytics data, due to uBlock Origin and a PiHole in my network, that they fall back to those ads. Maybe I'd have some nice ads for cooking supplies if I were to allow tracking, not sure.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by heavyset_go on Friday May 12, 2023 @11:20PM (#35925147)
Facebook shows me mobile game ads that are basically soft core porn for games that have absolutely nothing to do with the content of their ads.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by jamiequint on Friday May 12, 2023 @09:52AM (#35916305)
Cool, has nothing to do with security. That’s a different point entirely.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by _bohm on Thursday May 11, 2023 @06:16AM (#35900146)
The most outlandish and obvious scam advertisements I have seen (by far) have all been on Instagram
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by worldofmatthew on Thursday May 11, 2023 @06:13AM (#35900121)
YouTube and its parent Google are known for being infested with ads linking to viruses and malware.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by withinboredom on Thursday May 11, 2023 @05:53AM (#35899955)
Yet.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by smeagull on Thursday May 11, 2023 @07:05AM (#35900490)
Facebook ads have certainly been used to deliver malware in the recent past.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by SpaceNugget on Thursday May 11, 2023 @07:10AM (#35900535)
I almost fell for a scam yesterday from an instagram ad. There was an ad for fun printed workout shorts for only €4. I added a couple different prints and was about to pay when I noticed the URL was neehd dot com and the site title was some other random word. I couldn't find any reference to either name online and went back to instagram. The VERY NEXT AD was for an identical site with a different random 5 letter url. I reported both ads and now neehd com is "no longer available". Very glad I didn't put any payment details into the site. If they employ people to vet ads full time they should have easily been able to catch those ads before it was shown to a user. I have seen ads for those shorts non stop for a few weeks before I finally tapped the ad to see how much they were.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by bigbillheck on Thursday May 11, 2023 @09:35AM (#35901804)
One of the ways I solve that is to never buy anything that's been advertised to me (unless I have information about it from other channels).
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by account42 on Friday May 12, 2023 @11:49AM (#35917879)
You not only clicked through an ad but were going to buy whatever it was trying to sell you? Wild!
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by ChoGGi on Thursday May 11, 2023 @10:11AM (#35902366)
YouTube? The website that had such a large advertising campaign for GTA 6 beta that people started doing meme videos about it?
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by magicalhippo on Thursday May 11, 2023 @07:15AM (#35900581)
Indeed. Some years ago a fairly well-known news site here in Norway had their ad platform hacked, and it started serving a payload that exploited a vulnerability to infect a machine visiting the site with zero user interaction and zero visibility.

The payload would then proceed to hijack the browser and intercept sessions to the most popular online bank, allowing it to redirect funds behind the scenes without alerting the user.

That's the point when I realized ad blockers aren't a nice-to-have, but an essential protection element.

Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by II2II on Thursday May 11, 2023 @08:10AM (#35900999)
Performance and security may be my primary reasons for using an ad-blocker, but I must also admit that I would not remove the blocker even if those issues were addressed. On the rare occasion that I have used a computer without an ad blocker, I have found that advertising is so intrusive that I would rather not use the web.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by mitchdoogle on Thursday May 11, 2023 @12:59PM (#35904960)
This is why I don't read news articles on my phone. It's absolutely ridiculous what publishers do with ads
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by Sohcahtoa82 on Thursday May 11, 2023 @06:46PM (#35909368)
I run a PiHole in the cloud and VPN into it from my phone. Does the job of blocking ads pretty damn well.

What often ends up happening though is there will be a big empty box where the ad is supposed to be. And it's outright appalling how many ads they try to shove onto your screen. Every paragraph is separated by an ad.

Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by runamok on Friday May 12, 2023 @03:16AM (#35913011)
Firefox with uBlock Origin. I rarely see ads.
Re:YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers by 6177c40f on Thursday May 11, 2023 @06:17PM (#35909112)
I've resolved that I just don't want to be advertised to. I will never stop blocking ads no matter what, even without the security benefits.