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submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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YouTube’s ad blocking crackdown is facing a new challenge: privacy laws | Privacy advocates argue YouTube’s ad blocker restrictions violate the European Union’s online privacy laws.::YouTube is launching a “global effort” to crack down on ad blockers, but some privacy advocates in the European Union argue that it’s illegal.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

As YouTube tightens its restrictions on ad blockers, privacy advocates in the European Union are betting that government regulations can put a stop to the crackdown.

One privacy expert, Alexander Hanff, filed a complaint in October with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).

Hanff argues that YouTube’s ad blocker detection system is a violation of privacy — a charge Google denies — and illegal under EU law.

The European Commission seemed to reverse its stance in a proposed reform of its privacy law in 2017, stating that website providers should be able to check whether a user is using an ad blocker without their approval.

Patrick Breyer, a German digital rights advocate and member of the European Parliament, writes on Mastodon that “YouTube wants to force us into surveillance advertising and tracking with an anti-adblock wall.” Breyer says he is also asking the European Commission about the legality of ad blocker detection systems under the ePrivacy Directive.

It’s a bit too early to tell how the commission will respond to Hanff’s challenge, but the outcome likely won’t result in any changes to the existing system for those of us in the US.

The original article contains 827 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago

sigh

For me, the most important bit was the basis of the claim that YouTube would be breaching privacy, and this is it (completely missing from the "summary"):

“AdBlock detection scripts are spyware — there is no other way to describe them and as such it is not acceptable to deploy them without consent,” Hanff tells The Verge. “I consider any deployment of technology which can be used to spy on my devices is both unethical and illegal in most situations.”

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

One privacy expert, Alexander Hanff, filed a complaint...

I bet he always locked his bedroom door room as a teenager