I tried watching something on Hulu the other day. 5 minutes of unskippable ads. Nope. I’ll just do nothing, thanks.
this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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me_irl
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Firefox and ublock origin. I haven't watched ads in over 10 years
Also add in decentraleyes, privacy badger, canvas block, and ghostery.
Those five extensions together make it so that YouTube has an incredibly difficult time fingerprinting you and blocking you.
Decentraleyes is no longer being actively maintained. Ghostery doesn’t have a good track record. uBO and Privscy Badger are enough. The more you add stuff for anti-fingerprinting, the more unique you become therefore more fingerprintable.
There's a replacement for Decentraleyes called LocalCDN. Shame that the name isn't as catchy, though.
I have no idea whether it makes you more fingerprintable, and if it does, whether the fewer CDN connections is worth it.
Or use pornhub instead of yt
I also use Noscript and JSHELTER for more privacy.
Why aren't you using ublock? Or a third party you tube app?
Cause it's a PITA on a Shield
They run android, right? Assuming you can enable installing from other sources, install F-Droid (or Droidify, or ...) and try one of the many Pipe alternatives. I use PipePipe, but there are several. I forget that Youtube is supposed to have ads and shorts - I never see them.
SmartTube is good as well, with built-in adblock and sponsorblock
I use smart tube next on my shield.
There are ways....
I never understood this,
As long as you have control over the volume and screen, they can never force you, they just make the experience worse.
Once it gets worse enough, the user leaves
People who complain about ads deserve to watch ads
I know it's slightly a hassle and no one wants to hear it, but if you just close the video three times as an ad starts, it plays the videoon the fourth opening. You may need to rinse and repeat through the video. Cheers.
Was doing that for years, but then they implemented mid rolls, those are annoying.
I know I can avoid ads without paying, but I use Youtube almost daily so I pay for it. Why would I feel guilty otherwise? Youtube would stab me in the face for one US dollar, wouldn't even hesitate for a second. "Would you stab Mulligrubs in the face for one dolla... STAB STAB STAB
I do read articles without ads just for sanity's sake, but my website stopped working so I'm sad. This is a hint
You can skip YouTube though...
They have been testing unskippable ads for a while now. Not everyone will see them
YouTube watching me watching ads on YouTube
You can skip them if you pay the evil overlord.
Invidious, Newpipe, PipePipe, yt-dlp, uBlock Origin. Is revanced still a thing? Anyway, don't watch ads.
Revanced is still a thing but is being outpaced my Morphe right now
You can avoid them entirely if you have a good adblocker.
I dig your username.
Not all of them, and not for long.
Brave browser, no add-ons, no extra anything.
Brave is owned by fascist cryptobros. You really shouldn’t use it.