YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown isn’t just annoying, it could be illegal in Europe
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Can YouTube legally block ad blockers in the EU?

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.

  • lorkano@lemmy.worldEnglish
    173·
    1 year ago

    I can’t blame them for wanting to restore monetization as adblockers removed most of the revenue from those platforms. But fighting adblockers is not a way to do this. They should either change entire YouTube business model to pay to access, or rework ads to be less annoying. If ads were not annoying as fuck, people wouldn’t be pushed to install adblock in the first place. Adblock became popular when video ads with sound started popping up on the websites. This includes video ads in YouTube videos, people just hate to watch video ads.

    • LemmysMum@lemmy.worldEnglish
      163·
      1 year ago

      For every person using an ad blocker there’s 10,000 that don’t. Going after the fraction of a percent of perceived lost revenue from people who wouldn’t click your ads or buy your products anyway is just the epitome of greed.

      • noneya@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        1 year ago

        Agreed. There is always a subset of customers in which a business loses money. The corporations today have grown soft and cannot stomach a loss. It’s time we stop catering to weak companies and start catering to those who understand the risks associated with owning a business.

        • gian @lemmy.grys.itEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Nah, their problem is some analyst, which does not understand what he was speaking of, who decide that the company should grow by x% in the next quarter. If the company grow only by x -1 % then investors sell, the stock lose value, the shareholders are poorer and the big wings of the company may lose their job due to “loss of confidence in the management” from the shareholders.

    • andrew_bidlawEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Are ads cheaper now? I imagine with combined slots of ads, their duration, size on the screen they aren’t as expensive as they were and letting their clients get more for the same price. Compare one textual block from early android’s free apps to fullscreen video ads being a norm, same with youtube, chains of long videos. It seems they caused the deterioration of their own market. I imagine what actual statistics of clicks-per-show look like if they are so desperate. We sometimes hear of how premium superbowl or olympics ads are, and here it feels the exclusivity of access to consumer isn’t valued. You buy a slot, but your ad is sandwiched between other random products. How is that exclusive? Businesses would get used to it, but their incencitive isn’t there. If they pay big bucks, they want to buy a billboard, not a small string in a tabloid.

      As other person have said, users with blocks are a minority. But, what’s important, bashing them is a reputational thing. Google’s advertising and data-farming business. This gesture is good to promote at the board meating, to their regulars, and maybe charge a bit more. Also important that these blockers kill tracking devices like invisible pixels, so it may be a bigger reason to implement that than some loss of ad revenue.