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.

  • Ragerist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    62
    ·
    1 year ago

    Wouldn’t Netflix’s password sharing fall under the same law then?

    They use user information like connected wifi and position data to determine if a device is used away from the defined “home”.

    • Khanzarate@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      No.

      Netflix logging your IP is the equivalent of taking a photo of someone in public. Not ideal if you’re into privacy, but it’s a public place, so it’s your problem. YouTube’s Adblock detection is equivalent to patting them down to see if they have a weapon and requiring their ID. The software actively looks for changes, using technology that could detect what extensions you have installed, gather data to profile you better for ads, and monitor what you’re doing in your browser while the tab is open.

      Both are ultimately for the same purpose, to prevent people from avoiding to pay them, but methods matter.

        • MrOxiMoron@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Wow, so basically blacklisting email sender’s on ip address isn’t allowed either? When is an IP address, an individual and when is it just a machine in the cloud?

            • Melllvar@startrek.website
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              I’m not sure that helps much. Blacklisting senders based on their IP is much more commonly (and effectively) done on intermediary servers rather than on the client.

          • Kissaki@feddit.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            What matters is the association of the IP to a person or account. If you receive spam and block the source IP it’s not personal data. If you create an account on a website and they store your IP to it then it is.

            Handling IPs for necessary technical service protection can also be acceptable without explicit consent as long as it’s limited/temporary (you may be able to handle that without account association in the first place anyway).

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      GDPR doesn’t say you can never use any form of user data. It says a lot about what data is considered personal, what kind of disclosure and consent you need to setup first (mostly terms of service stuff), how you can store that data, how you can use it, and what responsibilities you have to remove or produce a copy of that data on demand. Until you’ve implemented GDPR it can be hard to understand what it is. But it’s not a super bonus +1 magic shield for all information.