Alexander Hanff (@thatprivacyguy@eupolicy.social)
eupolicy.social
Today I filed a formal complaint against #YouTube with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner for their illegal deployment of #adblock detection technologies. Under Article 5(3) of 2002/58/EC YouTube are legally obligated to obtain consent before storing or accessing information already stored on an end user's terminal equipment unless it is strictly necessary for the provisions of the requested service. In 2016 the EU Commission confirmed in writing that adblock detection requires consent.
  • gian English
    14•8 months ago

    This whole thread is a whole lot of hullabaloo about complaining about legality about the way YouTube is running ad block detection, and framing it as though it makes the entire concept of ad block detection illegal.

    Nope, the point is that, at the moment, Google seems to look where it should not look to know if a user has an adblocker and they don’t ask for permission.

    Let put it in another way: Google need to have my permission to look into my device.

    But it doesn’t stop Google from refusing to serve you video until you watch ads.

    Which is fine as long as Google can decide that I am using an adblocker without violating any law, which is pretty hard.

    Of course Google could decide that it is better to leave EU and it law that protect the users, but is it a smart move from a company point of view ?