Googlers, Will Google Disable Accounts for Using Adblockers on YouTube?
I use adblockers. My YouTube experience is pretty clean.
But I got the pop-up this morning saying that adblockers are not allowed on YouTube. Fair enough.
But it got me wondering: would Google go so far as to disable accounts that do this? Losing access to my Google account would be bad, even though I have degoogled as much as possible.
If Google would do this, I think I'll stop YouTube, which is fine too; my account is just too critical at this point. I would love if it weren't.
So Googlers, whether speaking for yourself and giving your own opinion, or officially, would Google do that?
For everyone else, would it even be legal for Google to do that? Why or why not?
Not a Googler, but hell no I don't think this will happen. It would turn into an enormous PR disaster.
Even if a Googler were here to answer this question, what are the odds that they are in a position in Google to make that statement? And even if, the answer would be outdated the moment it's posted because Google can change its position on this anytime. If your account is THAT important, just use a second one for YouTube. I have a Workspace account for critical stuff and a secondary one for everything else.
This is taking "make up a guy to get mad at" a little too far.
If they can detect your ad blocker then they can choose to refuse to serve video to you. I can't think of a business reason why they'd disable your account as that'd do nothing but generate negative PR.
Legally, Google can probably disable your account for any reason or no reason. Using an adblocker isn't a legally protected thing, so no legal reason not to do it.
That said, it doesn't make a lot of sense. If you have an adblocker on one device, but not others, why drop your account when they could push you to use the device they like you to use?
Especially since, despite the popup saying it won't work, video playback still works as of earlier this week when I saw it.
Seems highly unlikely. If they made that policy then a good number of their own employees would immediately lose access to their google accounts.
Maybe just create another account to use youtube with an adblocker in a different browser profile
this kind of concern is a great reminder to backup your google account, because you never know what reason google might have to lock you out of your digital life, often we see this scenarios where even their google fi account is locked so they are even locked out of their own phone number
They give you the option to pay for the service and not see ads, maybe you should look into that before fantasizing out loud about them taking your account away from you.
Maybe you can segment your YT activity into different browsers (or browser containers).
That's what I wound up doing; each Google account has it's own container. For most of my browsing, the only thing logged in is Kagi.
Personally, I'm wondering whether this will lead to an old style OTA TV adblocking scheme, where the adblocker "watches" the video for you, ads and all, and then clips out the ads and you watch the cleaned-up video later. Of course if they can make that client attestation thing stick, then the cleaner-upper would be denied service.
If they want to Reddit their user base, they are free to do so. If it happens I'll degoogle forever.
We tech bros can hold on to a grudge forever.
I don't think they would do this, seems easier to just make the videos not play.
My guess is at some point they show a message like you need to get a youtube premium subscription to keep watching without ads. Same with some news sites now which ask that you subscribe if you are blocking ads.
I seriously doubt it. A disabled user has zero value for Google.
They will probably block video though.
Do you really expect a Googler going to make a statement here? Life is never this easy.
Not a Googler, but two guesses:
1. No Googler here knows the answer to your question, because something this big is decided way up the chain. Furthermore, due to the huge backlash for such a move, I assume most Googlers would be against such a move, so it will only come to pass if forced by top management.
2. Your account is worth more to Google when you are using it, since they can better target ads at you, so disabling an account is something they want to avoid. I'm guessing they don't think it is profitable for them to disable an account that blocks ads on YT. Remember that even if you are blocking ads on YT, you might still see Google Ads elsewhere, for example on your Android device. They might just not show you the videos though?
I have been using adblocker on youtube for years now, both browser and ios app and have not had issue yet.
What about people with organizational accounts? For example, if I use ad blocker logged into my work Google account, which my employer presumably pays a per-seat cost for.