Youtube's Anti-adblock is illegal in the EU

ugjka@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 2296 points –
eupolicy.social
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Adblock detection has literally already been ruled on though (it needs consent). I'm sure there are nuances above my understanding, but it's not that simple.

You consent to their terms of service and privacy policy when you access their website by your continued use. They disclose the collection of browser behavior and more in the privacy policy. I suspect they are covered here but I don't specialize in EU policy.

Their terms of service have to be compliant with local laws though. You can't just put whatever you want in there and expect it to stand up in court.

This is true. And I'll disclaim again that I'm not an expert on EU law or policy. But I'm not familiar with a US policy or law that would preclude that consent to collection from being a condition of use. I've written these policies for organizations, and I think it will be a difficult argument to make. I'd love to read an analysis by a lawyer or policy writer who specializes in the EU.

Not an expert either, but from what I've seen, the EU actually has some amount of consumer protection. The USA on the other hand mostly lets big corporations get away with whatever they want, as long as they make some "donations".

I haven't agreed to any new terms and the adblocker appears for me

Assuming it didn't exist for months or years before this. As far as I know, blocking ads has always been against ToS.

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